The climate in New Caledonia

Climate zone: tropics

The climate in New Caledonia is very warm, with an annual average of 27 degrees, but has few truly tropical and sticky months. It is warm to hot all year round, inviting bathing at average water temperatures of 25 degrees. The warmest and rainiest part of the country is North Province. The coldest is South Province. Due to less rain, the best time for traveling is from August to November. The most rain days occur from from January to March.

Temperature records of the last 71 years

The hottest temperature measured from 1952 to January 2023 was reported by the Koumac weather station. In February 2020, the record temperature of 36.0 °C was reported here. The hottest summer from July to September was recorded in 2022 with an average temperature of 22.6 °C. This average temperature will normally be measured every four to six hours, thus also including the nights. Normally, this value is 20.6 degrees Celsius. The average maximum daily temperature at that time was 26.5 °C.

The coldest day in these 71 years was reported by the Koumac weather station. Here the temperature dropped to 11.5 °C in July 2020. Koumac lies at an altitude of 19 meters above sea level. The coldest winter (January to March) was in 1953 with an average temperature of 24.6 °C. In New Caledonia, it is usual to have about 1.5 degrees more at 26.1 °C for this three-month period.

The most precipitation fell in January 2021. With 19.2 mm per day, the Koumac weather station recorded the highest monthly average of the last 71 years.

Long-term development of temperatures from 1990 - 2022

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

In the years 1990 to 2022, there were only these 1 weather stations in the whole country, which reported continuous temperature values (Noumea). 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 February 1996 at 28.3 °C. July 1994 was the coldest month with an average temperature of 18.7 °C.

The average annual temperature was about 22.9 °C in the years after 1990 and about 23.7 °C in the last years before 2022. So in less than 33 years, it has increased by about 0.8 °C. This trend only applies to the selected 1 weather stations in New Caledonia. A considerably more comprehensive evaluation of global warming has been provided separately.



Data basis: German Weather Service, individual values averaged and supplemented by own elements.