CubaPLUS Magazine

Despite the fact that Cuba from November to April is in its winter and spring period, the cold is minimal, which is why more foreigners arrive in that period searching for heat, as if it were summer.

As such, the summer is always latent, present or soon to arrive, independent of the global climate changes. It goes without saying that the temperatures are part of the tourism of this archipelago. In spite of how accustomed Cubans are to intense heat, nowadays the high temperatures appear to start very early, with additional colour for tourism and more discomfort for lovers of the cold.

This climatic situation has its ugly side in terms of drought, but the beneficial part is in a particular brilliance when travellers want to get the best picture of the place to visit.

Heat’s always forcasted Weather forecasts sometimes indicate showers and thunderstorms in the east of the Island with little cloudiness in much of the territory, however the heat is the daily commentary even for people used to intense summers. Weather reports indicate temperatures between 32 and 35 degrees Celsius and a range at night of 25 to 28 degrees, perhaps a little less, but without protection from an air conditioner the impact of the temperature is always great.

Light swells and winds of 25 kilometers an hour create a landscape which, allows an appropriate refuge on beaches and pleasure boats, especially for travelers from all over the world in search of an active break.

Therefore, as well as the daily forecasts, the typical Cuban will inform the tourist that what is ever-present in Cuba is heat.

According to scientists, most of Cuba has a warm tropical climate with a rainy season in the summer.

To that data, they add that it is usually a seasonally humid tropical climate with maritime influence and semicontinental features. However, in the highlands of the mountainous system you can see the jungle-type humidity and rain all year around and in the southern coastal strip of Santiago de Cuba and Guantánamo, the eastern region, the term used is relatively dry with little rainfall. Affecting these temperatures is a climatic formation identified by the amount of solar radiation that the country receives and the atmospheric circulation, with certain physical-geographical properties. Cuba is very close to a latitude next to the Tropic of Cancer, which implies high radiation figures, as well as being on the tropical and extratropical circulation borders.

Therefore, from November to April, the variations in weather are more notable with frontal systems and anticyclonic influence. On the contrary, from May to Octubre there is little variation, according to experts and Institute of Meteorology.

The temperatures are generally high, so the average figures range between 26 on the plains and 26 degrees Celsius on the eastern coasts, in any case in the summers, intense heat is a given.

Some records show that Guantánamo – the most easterly Cuban province – registered 38.6 degrees Celsius on August 7 1969, and in Bainoa, a region in the western province of Mayabeque, the 18th of February of 1996 saw a registered temperature of 0.6 Celsius.

There is an old proverb that says the Cuban ‘either doesn’t reach the goal or surpasses it’ and that appears to have its link with a contradictory climate, where the daily variation in temperature is greater compared to the annual figures. And another element that makes the heat seem hotter is high relative humidity with averages close to 80%, with daily maximums higher than 90%.

Thus, in Cuba one doesn’t talk of winter, summer, spring and autumn, but rather the wet and dry season, with little cold, although in some months unusual figures are seen for this Caribbean island, maybe due to the ozone layer and climate change.

Many people, without being specialists, predict that a cold winter implies a hotter summer than usual.

Another of the old slogans is &Cuba an eternal summer", a reality that gives a very particular color to natural regions where you can take wonderful excursions.

The country receives more than four million visitors per year from all over the world and has a hotel infrastructure composed of around 70 thousand rooms, distributed throughout the country.

And although sun and beach continue as the main mode of attraction, the authorities diversify the offer with culture, history, diving, excursions, nature, congresses and events, multi-destination and other perfect offers for the predominant tropical climate.