Liberia is not Minnesota where the weather is the most common topic of idle conversation (It's how is your family? or How did you sleep? in Liberia).
Liberia has really two seasons, dry and wet. During the dry season, approximately from November to April, with the hottest, driest months being February and March, little if no rain falls. While I was there, it was only once did I see clouds. The end of January were two sheet sleeping nights. In February, it was HOT, DRY, and DUSTY with any sheet sticking to you. Since there are no thermometers, I can only go by the fact that Liberians said it was very hot, probably high 90's. Your clothes are continually covered on dust not only from the local soil, but from the harmattan winds which blow very fine dust particles from the Sahara Desert.
The rainy season is just the reverse. Rain comes down in torrents. Just how much it rains where I was I really don't know, but in the Monrovia it is close to 12 (144 inches) feet of rain during the rainy season. Minnesota gets about 40 inches of precipitation all year.
For dress, men wear long pants and dress like most Westerners. They say to be civilized. I wore my Samoan sarong in my house because it is cooler. I guess this is still a preferred style in the more remote, "less-civilized" parts of the country.
Liberia has really two seasons, dry and wet. During the dry season, approximately from November to April, with the hottest, driest months being February and March, little if no rain falls. While I was there, it was only once did I see clouds. The end of January were two sheet sleeping nights. In February, it was HOT, DRY, and DUSTY with any sheet sticking to you. Since there are no thermometers, I can only go by the fact that Liberians said it was very hot, probably high 90's. Your clothes are continually covered on dust not only from the local soil, but from the harmattan winds which blow very fine dust particles from the Sahara Desert.
The rainy season is just the reverse. Rain comes down in torrents. Just how much it rains where I was I really don't know, but in the Monrovia it is close to 12 (144 inches) feet of rain during the rainy season. Minnesota gets about 40 inches of precipitation all year.
For dress, men wear long pants and dress like most Westerners. They say to be civilized. I wore my Samoan sarong in my house because it is cooler. I guess this is still a preferred style in the more remote, "less-civilized" parts of the country.
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| I wore in Liberia the same lava-lava as in this earlier Samoan picture, an indispensable piece of cloth. |
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