Concept: Climate

Details

The climate of Solomon Islands is tropical equatorial but is modified to some extent by the oceanic surroundings. The temperature varies from an average high of 33.3° C (92° F) to an average, nighttime low of 22.7° C (73°F). The major islands are sufficiently large and high to produce a cool night breeze. From April to November the southeast trade winds blow almost continuously, with varying intensity. For periods of up to ten days or more strong winds with gusts up to 25-30 knots, and rainsqualls are followed by fine days of light southeast winds with speeds of 5-10 knots. November through March is more erratic, with both calms and heavy north and northwest weather. In this season occasional doldrums are punctuated by severe squalls, as well as cyclones (q.v.). Young cyclones form in the Coral Sea near the Solomon Islands and then pass on to Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Australia. Major cyclones strike many of the Solomon Islands approximately every twenty years and the islands are often to the west of cyclones that begin in the Coral Sea and head west to the east Australian coast. Other occasional weather disturbances occur, such as a waterspout of considerable size observed between Savo and Tulagi on 29 August 1935. (Guppy 1887, 352-370; AR 1935, 18; AR 1959-1960, 61; Nunn 2007) See also Rainfall.

Related Natural Phenomena

Published resources

Books

  • Guppy, Henry B., The Solomon Islands: Their Geology, General Features, and Suitability for Colonization, Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey and Company, London, 1887. Details
  • Nunn, Patrick, Climate, Environment and Society in the Pacific During the Last Millennium, Elsevier, Amsterdam; Oxford, 2007. Details

Reports

  • British Solomon Islands Protectorate, British Solomon Islands Protectorate Annual Reports (AR), 1896-1973. Details