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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