Bahamas
Bahamas Geography & Climate
Geography
The Bahamas is an archipelago in the western Atlantic — not, strictly, in the Caribbean Sea — stretching some eight hundred kilometres from off the Florida coast towards Hispaniola, with around seven hundred islands and two thousand cays of which perhaps thirty are inhabited.
Limestone and banks
The islands are the exposed tops of vast limestone platforms — the Great and Little Bahama Banks — built up over millions of years from coral and shell. The banks are extremely shallow, often only a few metres deep over enormous areas, and it is this, with the white carbonate sand beneath, that produces the colour the country is known for: light reflects off the bottom rather than being absorbed.
Flat
There is almost no elevation anywhere. The highest point in the entire country is Mount Alvernia on Cat Island at about sixty-four metres, and most land sits within a few metres of sea level — which is the central fact of the country’s future.
Blue holes and the Tongue of the Ocean
Water dissolving limestone has produced blue holes: vertical caves flooded by the sea, inland and offshore, with Andros holding the greatest known concentration anywhere. Between Andros and New Providence the sea floor drops abruptly into the Tongue of the Ocean, more than two kilometres deep.
Reef
The Andros barrier reef is the third-largest in the world, and reef systems run along much of the archipelago.
Exposed
Low, flat and directly in the Atlantic hurricane track — Dorian in 2019 stalled over Abaco and Grand Bahama as a category five storm. Sea-level rise is an existential rather than a theoretical problem here.
Climate Patterns
The Bahamas has a subtropical rather than a tropical climate — it sits north of the tropics — moderated by the Gulf Stream, which keeps winters mild and summers from becoming extreme.
Winter
December to April is the dry season: days between 21 and 27°C, low humidity, light trade winds and the calmest seas of the year. Cold fronts push down from North America occasionally and can drop temperatures into the mid-teens for a day or two, which Bahamians treat as a serious event.
Summer
May to November is hotter and much more humid, 27 to 32°C with heavy afternoon thunderstorms that usually clear quickly. Most of the annual rainfall falls in these months, and the sea reaches around 29°C.
North and south
The archipelago spans eight hundred kilometres, and the difference shows. Grand Bahama and the Abacos in the north are noticeably cooler in winter and wetter overall; the southern islands — Inagua, Mayaguana, Acklins — are drier and hotter, closer to a semi-arid climate, which is why Inagua has commercial salt pans.
Hurricanes
The season runs June to November, peaking August to October, and the Bahamas lies directly in the main Atlantic track. Hurricane Dorian in 2019 stalled over Abaco and Grand Bahama as a category five storm for more than a day and caused catastrophic damage. This is the single most important seasonal consideration for planning, and insurance that covers weather disruption is worth the cost.
Sun
The UV index is high year round, and the reflection off pale sand and shallow water intensifies it considerably.