Easter Island Climate Patterns

Rapa Nui has a subtropical maritime climate, moderated in every direction by the ocean around it.

Temperature

There is very little seasonal range. The warmest months, January to March, average around 20 to 28°C; the coolest, July and August, around 15 to 22°C. It has never frozen, and it rarely gets genuinely hot. Sea temperature runs from about 21°C in winter to 26°C in late summer.

Rain

Around 1,100 to 1,200 millimetres a year, falling in every month, with April to June the wettest. Showers are usually short and heavy and clear quickly, which means a wet morning frequently becomes a fine afternoon — and that a day’s plans should not be abandoned on the basis of the sky at breakfast.

Wind

Persistent and a defining feature. The south-easterly trades blow most of the year, and winter brings stronger systems off the Southern Ocean; there is essentially no shelter on a treeless island, and the wind makes cool days feel much cooler.

Sun

Ultraviolet is high given the latitude and the thin ozone over the southern Pacific, and there is very little natural shade anywhere on the island.

Cyclones and swell

The island sits south of the main tropical cyclone belt and is rarely hit directly, but distant Southern Ocean storms send long swell onto the coast for days at a time, which closes the few landing places and makes the rocky shoreline dangerous well after the weather itself has passed.

Practical effect

Layers, a windproof shell and sun protection, in any month. Waterproof footwear helps at the sites.