Climate
The climate is characterized as tropical marine. The weather is generally hot and very humid with little seasonal temperature variation. The mean high temperature is 86 °F (30 °C) and mean low is 76 °F (24 °C) with an average annual rainfall of 96 inches (2,180 mm). The dry season runs from December through June. The remaining months (July through November) constitute the rainy season. The months of January and February are considered the coolest months of the year with night time temperatures in the mid to low 70s and generally lower humidity levels. The highest risk of typhoons is during October and November. They can, however, occur year-round.
Guam is located in Typhoon Alley and it is common for the island to be threatened by tropical storms and possible typhoons during the wet season. The most intense typhoon to pass over Guam recently was Super Typhoon Pongsona, with sustained winds of 144 miles per hour, gusts to 173 miles per hour, which slammed Guam on December 8, 2002, leaving massive destruction.
Since Super Typhoon Pamela in 1976, wooden structures have been largely replaced by concrete structures. During the 1980s wooden utility poles began to be replaced by typhoon-resistant concrete and steel poles. After the local Government enforced stricter construction codes, many home and business owners built their structures out of reinforced concrete with installed typhoon shutters.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record high °F (°C) | 94 (34) |
93 (34) |
93 (34) |
96 (36) |
94 (34) |
95 (35) |
95 (35) |
94 (34) |
93 (34) |
93 (34) |
92 (33) |
91 (33) |
96 (36) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 86.3 (30.2) |
86.3 (30.2) |
87.2 (30.7) |
88.4 (31.3) |
88.8 (31.6) |
88.8 (31.6) |
88.0 (31.1) |
87.5 (30.8) |
87.6 (30.9) |
87.9 (31.1) |
87.8 (31.0) |
86.8 (30.4) |
87.6 (30.9) |
| Daily mean °F (°C) | 80.7 (27.1) |
80.5 (26.9) |
81.2 (27.3) |
82.5 (28.1) |
83.0 (28.3) |
83.1 (28.4) |
82.3 (27.9) |
81.9 (27.7) |
81.9 (27.7) |
82.2 (27.9) |
82.4 (28.0) |
81.6 (27.6) |
81.9 (27.7) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 75.2 (24.0) |
74.8 (23.8) |
75.3 (24.1) |
76.5 (24.7) |
77.3 (25.2) |
77.4 (25.2) |
76.5 (24.7) |
76.3 (24.6) |
76.1 (24.5) |
76.6 (24.8) |
76.9 (24.9) |
76.3 (24.6) |
76.3 (24.6) |
| Record low °F (°C) | 66 (19) |
65 (18) |
66 (19) |
68 (20) |
70 (21) |
70 (21) |
70 (21) |
70 (21) |
70 (21) |
67 (19) |
68 (20) |
68 (20) |
65 (18) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 3.96 (100.6) |
3.78 (96) |
2.35 (59.7) |
2.84 (72.1) |
4.28 (108.7) |
7.75 (196.9) |
11.45 (290.8) |
16.00 (406.4) |
13.58 (344.9) |
11.74 (298.2) |
8.08 (205.2) |
6.24 (158.5) |
92.05 (2,338.1) |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.01 in) | 18.8 | 15.7 | 16.8 | 17.0 | 19.3 | 22.6 | 24.7 | 25.3 | 24.3 | 25.1 | 23.4 | 22.1 | 254.9 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 176.7 | 186.0 | 217.0 | 213.0 | 220.1 | 195.0 | 155.0 | 142.6 | 132.0 | 133.3 | 135.0 | 142.6 | 2,048.3 |
| Source #1: NOAA (normals) | |||||||||||||
| Source #2: Hong Kong Observatory (sun only 1961–1990) | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Education In Guam
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Nobody is so constituted as to be able to live everywhere and anywhere; and he who has great duties to perform, which lay claim to all his strength, has, in this respect, a very limited choice. The influence of climate upon the bodily functions ... extends so far, that a blunder in the choice of locality and climate is able not only to alienate a man from his actual duty, but also to withhold it from him altogether, so that he never even comes face to face with it.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“Then climate is a great impediment to idle persons; we often resolve to give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)