Today, Kigali is shrouded in a dense haze that has significantly reduced visibility across the city. The atmosphere feels heavy, with the usual crisp views of the surrounding hills obscured by the mist.

The photograph above, taken at 10:17 AM from the Kigali Special Economic Zone, illustrates just how thick the haze is. Currently not sure if the haze is from dust, smoke or just water vapor. Usually if it’s fog it’s clear by 8am. Typically, this vantage point offers a fairly clear view of the Kigali International Airport; however, today the airport terminal is barely distinguishable, ghosting into the white-grey horizon on the far right side of the frame. It serves as a stark visual record of the current atmospheric conditions.

Indoor Environmental Data

To complement the visual observation, we pulled indoor environmental data from our sensor array deployed at Carnegie Mellon University Africa. The instrumentation paints a picture of a warm and moderately humid indoor environment.

Across our functional sensor sets, the indoor temperature held steady at an average of 25°C. Humidity levels were also consistent, hovering between 60% and 67% for the majority of the devices. It is worth noting that one distinct sensor, the BME0, reported a significantly drier reading of approximately 46%, while another unit (BME2) was flagged for calibration issues and excluded from this analysis.