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Recife, the capital of Pernambuco state, sits on the northeastern Atlantic coast of Brazil, on a low, river-laced coastal plain sometimes called the 'Venice of Brazil', at approximately 8.05°S, 34.88°W. It has a tropical climate (Köppen As) — hot and humid year-round, cooled by sea breezes — with an unusual rainfall pattern in which the wettest months fall in the middle of the year rather than in the tropical summer.
There is no summer in the temperate sense: temperatures stay warm and steady, with daytime highs around 30–31°C and warm, humid nights, tempered by the constant Atlantic breeze. The early part of the year, from December to February, is actually the drier, sunnier and hottest-feeling season, when the coast is bright and the beaches busy, before the main rains arrive around March.
Nor is there a true winter, but the middle months from around April to July are the rainy season — the opposite of most tropical places — when this stretch of the Brazilian coast receives its heaviest rain, brought by moist onshore winds, along with more cloud and higher humidity. Temperatures barely fall, staying warm and pleasant, but the weather is greyer and wetter than the sunny start of the year.
Recife receives on the order of 2,000–2,400 mm of rain a year, concentrated in the mid-year wet season from April to July, when June is typically the wettest month; the December-to-February period is markedly drier. Heavy downpours in the rainy season regularly cause flooding on the low-lying, densely built coastal plain. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Recife's most distinctive climatic quirk is its inverted rainy season — wettest in the middle of the year, driven by moist onshore trade winds, rather than in the summer as in most of tropical Brazil. Its low-lying, river-and-canal-laced setting leaves it prone to flooding during the heavy mid-year rains, while the constant sea breeze keeps the year-round heat comfortable along the coast.
To follow any single measurement in Recife more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.