Climate


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As you can imagine, the climate in Reunion Island is tropical and oceanic.
There are only two seasons : summer (November to April) and winter (May to October). Remember we are in the southern hemisphere...




The temperatures

Temperatures are mild the whole year round. Winter is only called "winter" as opposed to summer. Actually, there are no big differences in temperatures between "summer" and "winter".
Nevertheless, we cannot forget that the island is very mountainous. Even if one can go on the beach throughout the year, the temperature in the mountains may fall below 0�C during the winter !!




The rains

Summer is also called the wet season, or the cyclone season. Even during this season, the rainy days are not so frequent (except in an exceptional year), but when it rains, it is heavy rain lasting several hours.

The eastern coast, exposed to trade winds the whole year round, is far wetter than the western coast, protected by the mountains. Microclimates are numerous because of this very mountainous relief.

Cyclones may come to visit the island but most of the time the climate is dominated by tropical depressions, that are less strong.
Nowadays, the buildings are tough enough to resist to even big cyclones. But the crops suffer with each heavy rain.

Austral winter is mild and quite dry. The sky is sometimes cloudy in the afternoon, but it hardly ever rains.
Be careful, in the mountains though it may be very cold!




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Captur� par MemoWeb � partir de http://www-eleves.int-evry.fr/~narassig/run/eng/climate.html le 10/02/97