Drivers and impacts of westerly moisture transport events in East Africa

Peal, Robert; Collier, Emily

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1365-2025

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1365-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1365-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 6, issue 4

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

06 Nov 2025

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 06 Nov 2025

Drivers and impacts of westerly moisture transport events in East Africa

Robert Peal and Emily Collier

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-1365-2025-supplement

Data sets

Westerly Moisture Transport Events (WMTEs): A flexible framework for studying intraseasonal variability in East Africa Robert Peal and Emily Collier https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.16875302

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Hans Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

Model code and software

Dynlib: A library of diagnostics, feature detection algorithms, plotting and convenience functions for dynamic meteorology Clemens Spensberger https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4639624

Executive editor

This study adopts the concept of atmospheric rivers, which is often applied in the extratropics, in an innovative manner to study the synoptic moisture fluxes in tropical East Africa, a region that stands out in terms of its inter-annual rainfall variability with large socio-economic impacts. In doing so, the authors are able to provide critical insights into the mechanisms underlying this rainfall variability and connect inter-annual changes to shorter time scales and specific synoptic events, including tropical cyclones and phases of the Madden-Julian Oscillation.