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The climate of El Salvador
The country of El Salvador lies in the central part of Central America on the Pacific. El Salvador is the smallest country of the continent of Central America and largely consists of hilly to mountainous area, in which volcanic craters and impressive lakes determine the scenery for a considerable part. Due to its situation south-west of mountainous area hurricanes from the Caribbean have practically no chance to reach El Salvador, but the country does have the chance of having to deal with tropical storms which arise over the Pacific. This may occur in the period of June up to and including December. The climate of El Salvador consists for the greater part of two tropical climates according to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification: the tropical monsoon climate (type Am) and the tropical savannah climate (type Aw). The most elevated places of El Salvador have a combination of a moderate and a cool maritime climate.

Climate information of places and areas in El Salvador
The climate information on this page is only brief. Specific information about weather and climate can be found on the climate pages per area or town. As for El Salvador the following climate information is available:

Tropical temperatures
In large parts of El Salvador prevail tropical temperatures practically throughout the year, with which the average maximum temperature varies from appr. 27-28 degrees in the autumn to 32-33 degrees centigrade in the spring. As soon as the rainy season in May begins the temperatures are tempered a little. Because the relative air humidity increases in that period, generally speaking the temperature sensation is not lower, on the contrary, due to the sultry weather most travelers experience this period as being warmer, whereas the thermometers prove that this is not the case.

Snow
The more elevated areas of El Salvador have a climate which is considerably cooler. Thus on the highest place of El Salvador, on the mountain Cerro El Pital prevails a cool maritime climate. This highest spot of the country (2730 meters above sea level) is also the coolest place of El Salvador and the only place of the country where snowfall occurs in the winter months. The maximum temperature here in the winter months (November up to and including April) is around 8-12 degrees centigrade and in the summer it is about 15 to 20 degrees in the daytime. During the period of November up to and including May night frost may occur, particularly in the months of February and March this happens regularly. The lowest temperatures measured are about minus five to minus seven degrees.

Rainy season
El Salvador has a clear distinction between a dry season and a rainy season (monsoon period). From the month of May the amount of precipitation increases considerably, in the course of which it may regularly rain heavily up to and including October. The rainfall does not generally progress evenly. Sometimes locally peaks may be registered of more than a hundred millimeters within a few hours, which may result in landslides and mud streams. Thus on October 4th 2005 floods and landslides have caused the death of more than fifty people. In the dry period another problem may occur: extreme drought. The lack of any precipitation of importance for weeks or even months may cause extreme drought destroying large parts of the crops, which in turn has disastrous economic consequences for El Salvador.
 

Climate figures
Scattered over El Salvador you find different climate data and temperatures. The data in the table below go for the capital of San Salvador and cannot be considered an average for the country. Visit the individual climate information pages for the climate data of other places in El Salvador.

	average  maximum temperature (°C)	average minimum temperature (°C)	average hours of sunshine per day	average days with precipitation per month	average mm precipitation per month	average sea temperature (°C)
January	30	14	8	3		n/a
February	31	14	9	3		n/a
March	32	15	9	4		n/a
April	32	17	9	8		n/a
May	30	17	8	18		n/a
June	28	17	7	27		n/a
July	29	17	7	27		n/a
August	29	17	7	28		n/a
September	28	17	6	29		n/a
October	28	17	6	22		n/a
November	28	15	8	8		n/a
December	29	14	8	5		n/a
= 0-5 mm ● = 6-30 mm ● = 31-60 mm ● = 61-100 mm ● = 101-200 mm ● = over 200 mm = 0-0.2 inches ● = 0.2-1.2 inches ● = 1.2-2.4 inches ● = 2.5-4 inches ● = 4.1-8 inches ● = over 8 inches

More climate information
Climate figures come in handy, but do not offer a complete impression of the climate and the possible weather circumstances within a certain period. How big the chance is of wintry weather, (extreme) heat or hurricanes cannot often be found in figures. Therefore we monthly offer useful extra climate information. The information below goes for the capital of San Salvador. For information about particular areas and places in El Salvador please visit the specific climate pages of those places and/or areas.

	chance of (very) hot weather	chance of (very) cool weather	chance of long-term precipitation	chance of hurricanes (cyclones)	chance of sunny days	UV-index
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
click here for the explanation of the symbols

Disclaimer
The information at this site was carefully composed from climate data collected by meteorological services, meteorological offices, climate experts and other sources. “More climate info” is based on statistics, climate data and personal experience. No rights can be derived from this site. Weather has no memory and gives no guaranties. Nothing is as changeable and unpredictable as the weather. The authors of this site feel in no way responsible for any damages caused by misinterpretation or other circumstances that may influence your holiday or trip to a certain destination. We provide information, it’s up to the reader to use it to it’s benefit.