Climate of Guyana

Climate of Guyana

Where is the country of Guyana located? The country of Guyana, formerly also known as British Guiana, is located in the north of South America, bordering Suriname to the east, Brazil to the south and Venezuela.in the West. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana, as the country is now officially called, has a combination of tropical climates, partly due to its location just above the equator. Temperatures are the same throughout most of the country with maximum temperatures around 30-31 degrees almost all year round and nighttime temperatures rarely dropping below 22 to 24 degrees Celsius. The different climate zones are determined by the precipitation pattern and the absolute amounts of precipitation that fall per year. For example, the northwest has to deal with about 3500 millimeters of precipitation on average per year and the south of Guyana has ‘only’ fifteen hundred to two thousand millimeters of rainwater per year.

The northwest has a tropical rainforest climate (type Af according to the Köppen climate classification), the northwest and central Guyana have a tropical monsoon climate (type Am) and the south a tropical savanna climate (type Aw).

Rainy season

The rainy seasons vary by location. Globally, Guyana has two rainy seasons. The first runs from December to early February (the minor rainy season), the second starts at the end of April and lasts until mid-August (the major rainy season). The periods in between are drier, but should definitely not be called dry. During the two drier periods, there is still an average of about 60 to 180 millimeters of precipitation per month (depending on the region), spread over an average of about 13 to 18 days per month.

Sun and clouds

Even in the rainy season, completely gray days are a rarity. There are almost always days in which bright blue skies with sunshine alternate with dark gray skies with heavy rainfall. These changes can take place quite quickly, so that you can suddenly be surprised by a tropical rain shower while lying on the beach. The average number of hours of sunshine per day is between 6 and 8 hours.

Climate figures

The figures below are based on long-term average climate statistics. The temperatures are displayed in degrees Celsius (°C).

Maximum temperature Minimum temperature Hours of sunshine per day Days of rainfall per month
January 29℃ 23℃ 7 24
February 29℃ 23℃ 7 16
March 30℃ 24℃ 7 15
April 30℃ 24℃ 7 17
May 30℃ 24℃ 6 26
June 30℃ 24℃ 6 25
July 30℃ 23℃ 7 28
August 31℃ 24℃ 8 20
September 31℃ 24℃ 8 14
October 31℃ 24℃ 8 14
November 31℃ 24℃ 7 18
December 30℃ 24℃ 6 24

Best time to visit Guyana

Do you want to know when is the best time to travel to Guyana? You can determine the best time to travel to a destination based on the weather and climate. In addition, there are other factors that are not directly related to the weather and that can influence the best travel periods for a travel destination. Think, for example, of holidays or festive periods, which makes traveling more interesting or not, because daily life comes to a standstill as a result. The Cooperative Republic of Guyana is a country located in northern South America. Guyana was formerly known as British Guiana, to distinguish it from French Guiana. It is tropical climates that rule Guyana. The northern half has a tropical rainforest climate, while the southern part has to do with the tropical monsoon climate and the tropical savanna climate. Guyana is a country rich in water, on the one hand because of the large amounts of rain that fall from the sky, on the other hand because of the many rivers that flow through the country. The poor drainage means that a large part of the rainwater is discharged overland via the rivers. This produces a large number of spectacular waterfalls, but also floods in the heaviest rainy periods. The best travel time depends mainly on the rain pattern. And that’s not the same across the country. Some areas have a drier season of about half a year (October through March), while other areas of Guyana have a drier period at the end of the year or in the spring. The capital Georgetown, which is centrally located on the coast, has two shorter periods in which there is less rain, but which you should not call dry. There, the period from September to mid-December is drier and in February and March you will also see the precipitation amounts temporarily decrease.

Best months

If we had to indicate one period as the best time to travel to Guyana, it would be September to November. This is the driest and most sunny period in a large part of the country. The only exception to this is the north-west of the country. In the tropical rainforests around Mabaruma it still rains quite heavily and you have to wait for the months of February and March to have less rain.

Guyana