🇧🇸Bahamas

The Bahamas stretch from 20°55′N to 27°25′N as an archipelago of roughly 700 low-lying coralline islands scattered southeast across the Atlantic from southern Florida toward Hispaniola, covering about 13,900 km² of land with the highest point only 63 m at Mount Alvernia on Cat Island.

The northern islands—Grand Bahama, the Abacos—exhibit a humid subtropical to tropical savanna blend (Cfa/Aw), while the southern chain, including Inagua, leans fully tropical savanna (Aw). The warm, shallow Bahama Banks and the western North Atlantic modulate temperatures year-round, while persistent east and northeast trade winds sweep the islands with maritime air.

Nassau averages 21°C in January and 28°C in August, with annual rainfall around 1,400 mm concentrated in the May-to-October wet season. The southern islands are markedly drier—Inagua receives only about 700 mm per year—and rainfall variability is high throughout the archipelago.

The Atlantic hurricane season from June through November dominates climate hazards: severe direct strikes include Hurricane Andrew in 1992, Floyd in 1999, and most severely Dorian in 2019, a Category 5 storm that stalled over Abaco and Grand Bahama, killing 74 people and inflicting USD 3.4 billion in damage. Freshwater resources are limited to thin lens aquifers on each island, and rising sea levels threaten virtually the entire nation given a median elevation below 10 meters.

Our archive covers 1 Bahamian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Nassau, around 28.2°C, while Nassau records the coldest January nights near 21.6°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 0.8°C.