jE 
CLIMATE 
Liperia has one of the rainiest and most humid climates of Africa. The rainy 
season, which corresponds with the period of the southwest monsoon, begins 
in April and lasts until November. The rains are usually severe, and the total 
annual rainfall may be over 170 inches. In parts of Sierra Leone, the adjacent 
British Colony where the rainfall in the corresponding sections is probably no 
heavier, the annual rainfall may be as much as 204.5 inches,! and in parts of the 
Cameroon district which has approximately the same altitude, the rainfall may 
reach the enormous figure of 350 inches, the second greatest in the world. 
However, information of scientific accuracy and in sufficient detail to be of 
great value is almost never obtainable in Liberia and this remark applies to the 
accurate estimation of the rainfall for long periods of time. The most valuable 
records available, though they are not extensive, were kept at Mt. Barclay, 
seventeen miles from Monrovia, approximately eleven miles inland from the 
coast and at another locality near Monrovia. The earlier of the Mt. Barclay 
records have been reported by Johnston,” and the later ones, which were kept 
by Taylor for the year 1913, when the annual rainfall was 160.40 inches, by 
Maugham.’ The heaviest rainfall occurred in June (20.52 inches); in July 
(28.85 inches); in August (31.17 inches) and in September (26.63 inches). 
Ross * has also given the records of the rainfall of two and one half years ob- 
servation (1913-1916) at Monrovia and at twenty miles southward on the 
coast. He found the total annual rainfall 179.5 inches, of which the precipita- 
tion was 170 inches during the rainy season of seven months. He also found 
that June was the wettest month. The most valuable recent records are those 
kept at the Firestone Plantations Company at Mt. Barclay and the Du River 
divisions (see following page). 
It is of interest to note that in 1929 the total annual rainfall at Du Division 
No.4 was 181.07, with amaximum in September of 41.73. Somerecords of tempera- 
ture and rainfall have also been kept at the Holy Cross Mission at Masambolahun 
in the hinterland. However, at Masambolahun there have been certain difficul- 
ties arising from the apparatus and methods employed and the records are too in- 
complete to be of any value. It might be considered preposterous that there 
should not be a series of careful government meteorological records of Liberia. It 
is usually stated, that, as July advances, the rains in Liberia gradually cease, and 
that by the middle or latter part of the month there is, for two or three weeks 
very little rainfall. This lower rainfall in July is illustrated in the table of figures 
given below of the Firestone Plantations Company. The fact is so well recog- 
1 Giles: “Climate and Health in Hot Countries’’ (1904), p. 38. 
2 Johnston: Loc. cit., p. 500, (1906). 
3 Maugham: “The Republic of Liberia’ (1920). 
Ross: The Geographical Review (1919), VII, 388. 
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