Climate
Climate of Maldives
Maldives is located at the equator and experiences monsoonal
climate. Maldives has two distinct seasons; dry season (northeast
monsoon) and wet season (southwest monsoon). In these two
seasons the temperature varies hardly. Northeast monsoon
extends from January to March.
Since Maldives consists of small islands and are surrounded
by seas, hot days are often tempered by cooling sea breezes
and balmy evening temperatures. Throughout the year, temperature
remains almost same in the Maldives.
However, daily temperature ranges from around 31 degrees
Celsius in daytime to 23 degrees Celsius in nighttime. The
mean daily maximum temperature for Central parts (Hulhule)
of the Maldives is 30.5 degrees Celsius and minimum temperature
is 25.7 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, mean daily maximum
and minimum temperature for South (Gan) is 30.9 and 24.5
degree Celsius, respectively. Furthermore, mean daily maximum
and minimum temperature for North (Hanimaadhoo) is 30.7
and 25.2 degrees Celsius, respectively.
The highest temperature ever recorded in the Maldives was
36.8°C, recorded on 19 May 1991 at Kadhdhoo Meteorological
Office. Likewise, the minimum temperature ever recorded
in the Maldives was 17.2°C, recorded at the National
Meteorological Centre on 11th April 1978.
The wet season- southwest monsoon runs from mid-May to November.
In this season Maldives experiences torrential rain. Central,
Southern and Northern parts of the Maldives receive annual
average rainfall of 1924.7mm, 2277.8mm, and 1786.4mm, respectively.
The highest rainfall ever recorded in the Maldives with
in 24 hour period was recorded on 9th July 2002 at Kaadedhdhoo
Meteorological Office and amounts to 219.8mm of rainfall.
The fact that the Maldives is located at the equator, Maldives
receives plentiful of sunshine through out the year. On
average Southern atolls (Gan) of the Maldives receives 2704.07
hours of sunshine each year. Furthermore, on average central
(Hulhule) parts of the country receives 2784.51 hours of
sunshine per year.
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