The climate on the Marshall Islands

Climate zone: tropics

High humidity on the Marshall Islands and high temperatures are causing a pleasant weather at times, but also and partly tropical hot and humid. It is warm to hot all year round and invites to bathe at average water temperatures of 28 degrees. Dued to the lesser rain the best time for traveling is from January to March. Most precipitation decrease in October.

› Duration of daylight and sunshine on the Marshall Islands

Temperature records of the last 56 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1964 to October 2020 was reported by the Majuro weather station. In October 2019 the record temperature of 38.5 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September, based on all 2 weather stations on the Marshall Islands below 10 metres altitude, was recorded in 2016 with an average temperature of 29.0 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every 4 to 6 hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 27.8 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 30.9 °C.

The coldest day in these 56 years was reported by the weather station Majuro. Here the temperature dropped to 20.4 °C in November 2009. Majuro lies at an altitude of 3 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1976 with an average temperature of 26.4 °C. On the Marshall Islands, it is usual to have about 1.2 degrees more at 27.6 °C for this three-month period.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1997 - 2019

In contrast to single record values, a long-term development cannot simply be brought about by all weather stations in the country. Both the number and the locations are constantly changing. A simply calculated average value would give a falsified result. If several measuring stations in particularly cold mountain or coastal regions are added in one year, the average would already decrease as a result of this alone. If a station fails during the summer or winter months, it does not provide any values and falsifies the average again. The subsequent long-term development was therefore reduced to only 1 measuring points in order to have actually comparable data over as long a period as possible.

In the years 1997 to 2019 there were only these 1 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values (Majuro). From these weather reports we have created a long-term development that shows the monthly average temperatures. The hottest month in this entire period was 2016 with 29.1 °C. 1997 was the coldest month with an average temperature of 27.3 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 27.9 °C in the years after 1997 and about 28.4 °C in the last years before 2019. It has therefore increased only slightly by about 0.5 °C over the past 23 years. This trend only applies to the selected 1 weather stations on the Marshall Islands. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of the global warming has been provided separately.




More detailed information on global warming with a view by continent can also be found on our topic page on climate change. Data basis: German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements.