The weather Bonaire, a dull weather forecast daily
Little temperature differences and temperatures below twenty degrees C, 68F, are hardly ever measured!
On average about 8-9 hours of sunshine a day, over 3,000 a year
Tropical savanna climate
Officially, Bonaire has a tropical savanna climate (type Aw, according to the Köppen-Geiger classification), but it is also described by many as ‘tropical arid’: a dry climate with tropical temperatures.
A savanna climate means that the temperatures are fairly constant throughout the year, with maximum temperatures of between 28 and 32 degrees Celsius (82-90 Fahrenheit) almost all year round, temperatures that are reached quite quickly during the day. As soon as night falls (the sun sets here relatively quickly), the temperature drops to about 23-25 degrees Celsius (74-77 Fahrenheit). So it never gets really cold! Despite the ever-present sheep clouds, the island has an average of 8-9 hours of sunshine per day, more than 3,000 per year. For comparison: the European Netherlands has an average of half, about 1,500!
Little temperature differences
The fact that there are only relatively small temperature differences is due to the warm Caribbean Sea that surrounds us and the almost always blowing north-east trade. In the winter months, sea and trade winds ensure that the land is warmed up a bit and in the summer the wind-from-sea is somewhat ‘cooler’ again, because the sea water is relatively cool compared to the air temperatures and the wind is slightly cooler, cooling the sea even more. Although ‘cooling’: temperatures below twenty degrees are hardly ever measured!
Very little rain
On average, the weather station of Flamingo Airport measures almost 460 millimeters per year. This is really an average, because there were quite a few drier years on Bonaire, with about 350 millimeters. However, there are also years when there is a thousand millimeters of rain, especially in the years when a hurricane or tropical storm gets uncomfortably close, or when tropical depressions pass by.
Most rain falls in the last quarter of the year. The months of October, November and December account for about half of the total amount of rainfall per year. The driest months are February, March, April, May and June. On average in those months less than 20 mm of rain falls per month. However, we see relatively many months in which we have no rainfall at all and nature around us craves some rainwater.
Fairly high humidity
So with the rain it is not so bad on Bonaire, but on the island there is a fairly high relative humidity, namely on average about 76%! Divided over the year there is little variation in this, the difference between the driest months and the most clammy months is only a few percentage points of humidity. The phenomenon that all that moisture in the air results in so few showers, is mainly due to the limited surface area of the island and the almost absence of height differences. Zones with clouds that mainly consist of rain clouds will therefore pass through Bonaire quite quickly and only cause rain on the mainland (usually from South America).