Climate in Jaffna (Sri Lanka)

The climate of Jaffna is tropical, hot all year round. There is a rainy season from October to December, which has a maximum in November, and another less evident in April and May, while in the rest of the year, the rains are quite rare.

Jaffna is a city of 88,000 inhabitants, located on a peninsula on the north coast of Sri Lanka, in the Northern Province, of which it is the capital, and at almost 10 degrees north latitude. Just south of the city is a marine lagoon, which is home to mangroves and a wide variety of flora and fauna.
The airport, from which the data is taken, is located further north, near the town of Kankasanturai.



During the period when the sun passes at the zenith (April-May), there is a certain increase in rainfall, but then, from mid-May to September, the period of the southwest monsoon, the north-west of Sri Lanka is partially protected by neighboring India, so the rains are rare.
Instead, the rainiest period, as mentioned at the beginning, is from October to December.

Temperatures are high all year round. The hottest period is from March to May, before the monsoon, when the temperature can reach 36/37 °C (97/99 °F).
However, since the southwest monsoon is very weak, the heat remains intense even in summer.

The sun often shines from January to May, while in the rest of the year, the hours of sunshine decrease a little, both in the summer (where it rarely rains, but there's still some cloudiness due to the south-west monsoon) and in the rainy period of the end of the year.

Sri Lanka is in the path of tropical cyclones. Typically, on the Indian Ocean north of the Equator, cyclones occur from April to December, although Sri Lanka is usually only affected in November and December, and more rarely in May. In fact, usually in mid-May, sometimes there can be heavy rains, caused by cyclones that form in the Bay of Bengal, even if they are at the beginning of their life. However, since the sea is warm all year round, in theory they can also form from January to March, perhaps in a light form (such as tropical storms).

Best Time

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The best time to visit Jaffna and the northwest of Sri Lanka goest from mid-January to August. It should be noted that from March onwards it can get very hot. Also, in April and May, in some years it can rain a lot, at least at certain periods.

Jaffna - Climate data

In Jaffna, the average temperature of the coldest month (January) is of 25.5 °C, that of the warmest month (May) is of 30.4 °C. Here are the average temperatures.