Thick air with taste...

One of the best things Jamaica offers is..., yup, the weather. Nice temperatures and a lot of sunshine make the island to a nice spot for visitors.
The air is warm and thick. While breathing you can almost taste the air. It has something exotic, salty and spicy. But also fruity and sweet...

Some averages
Jamaica is located south of the tropic of Capricorn, but also lies far enough north from the equator to have not too hot temperatures. It's location in the middle of the Caribbean Sea causes high humidity and fine breezes. All this together make the climate in Jamaica perfect most of the time.

The average year-round temperature is about 80° Fahrenheit (27° Celsius). However, high in the Blue Mountains the average temperature is about 65° Fahrenheit (17° Celsius) and in the lowlands the average is more like 90° Fahrenheit (32° Celsius).


Cooling trade winds (called 'doctor breeze' by the locals) blow in from the seas to cool the coastal region during daytime hours.

Rain
Differences between the seasons are just little. However, there are two rainy seasons (well, during those months it rains a bit more than it does in the dry seasons...), May to June and September to October.
The weather can change quickly during the rainy period, but most of the time the sun comes back soon after a few (thunder)showers.

The average rainfall for Jamaica is about 78 inches a year (307mm), but is depending on the region. Most of the rain falls in the north, northeast and the Blue Mountains Portland is the wettest parish.
The south coast lies under the lee of the mountains and so there is less rain that in the northern regions.

Humidity is high during the whole year: 73 to 77% in Montego Bay and along the north coast and 68 to 74% in Kingston and along the south coast.

Hurricanes
There is one but in Jamaica's climate: hurricanes.
A hurricane is a dangerous, high-pressure storm of intense wind and rainfall that resolves around a low-pressure center, called 'the eye'
Hurricanes can be very big, a diameter of 100 miles or more is no expectation. Thunder, lightning and very heavy rainfall usually accompany a hurricane.


Most of the Caribbean hurricanes originate far away off the coast of Africa. Fed by warm winds and the warm Atlantic waters, they cross over the ocean. When arriving into the Caribbean region they can be very strong and dangerous. Winds can reach speeds of 180 mph (290km) and more.

In comparison with the other Caribbean islands and the US, relatively few hurricanes touch Jamaica.
One of the most destructive hurricanes for Jamaica was Gilbert, which paralyzed the life on the island in September 1998. It caused immense damage, killed 45 people and made more than 500,000 homeless.

More recent hurricanes, which caused damage and deaths in other Caribbean countries did not make landfall in Jamaica. Some of them were Luis in 1995, and Georges and Mitch in 1998.

Ivan
In 2004 US' "Sunshine State" Florida was visited by four hurricanes in less that two months. One of them, Ivan, almost made landfall in Jamaica a week before.
The eye of Ivan passed just a few miles south of the island as a category four hurricane, but the heavy winds and rainfall caused a lot of damage. About 500,000 were evacuated into shelters. Some parts of the island did not have power for weeks.