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Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, sits at the head of the Gulf of Gonâve on the western coast of Hispaniola, on a coastal plain hemmed in by mountains at approximately 18.59°N, 72.31°W. It has a tropical climate (Köppen Aw) — hot and humid year-round — with two rainy seasons, a sheltered, rain-shadowed setting that keeps it drier than much of the island, and exposure to Atlantic hurricanes.
There is no summer in the temperate sense: temperatures stay hot and steady, with daytime highs around 32–34°C and warm, humid nights, tempered somewhat by sea breezes off the gulf. The rainy seasons come in two pulses — April to June and August to October — when heavy afternoon downpours and thunderstorms fall; the latter coincides with the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.
There is no true winter, but the drier season from November to March brings slightly lower humidity, more sunshine and much less rain, with warm days and comfortable nights near 20–22°C. This bright, drier, breezy stretch is comfortably the most pleasant time of year in the hot lowland capital.
Port-au-Prince is relatively dry for the Caribbean, receiving on the order of 1,300–1,400 mm of rain a year, delivered in two wet seasons — April to June and August to October — while the winter is markedly dry; the surrounding mountains cast a rain shadow that keeps totals lower than on Haiti's windward slopes. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Hurricanes are the gravest weather hazard for Port-au-Prince, striking most often between August and October and bringing torrential rain that races off Haiti's steep, deforested hillsides, causing catastrophic flooding and landslides — the loss of forest cover has made the city dramatically more vulnerable to these storms than its modest rainfall totals would suggest.
To follow any single measurement in Port-au-Prince 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.