Kingston Parish
Kingston Parish Geography & Climate
Geography
Kingston sits on the south-east coast of Jamaica in one of the finest natural harbours anywhere, on a narrow coastal plain hemmed in by mountains.
The harbour
A deep, sheltered bay protected by the Palisadoes — an eighteen-kilometre spit of sand and shingle built up by longshore drift, carrying the airport road and ending at Port Royal. It is among the largest natural harbours in the world and is the reason the city exists here rather than somewhere prettier.
The Liguanea plain
An alluvial fan of gravel washed down from the mountains, sloping up from the waterfront to around 200 metres at the northern edge of the city. The gradient is why the uptown neighbourhoods are cooler and better ventilated than downtown, and why the social geography maps so neatly onto the topography.
The Blue Mountain range
Rising immediately behind the city to 2,256 metres at the peak — the highest point in Jamaica and among the highest in the Caribbean. The slopes hold montane and cloud forest, a national park, and the coffee that carries the name. The range is shared with the John Crow mountains in a UNESCO World Heritage site, listed both for its biodiversity and for the Maroon history in it.
Earthquakes
Jamaica sits on a complex boundary between the Caribbean and North American plates, and Kingston has been destroyed twice — in 1692 and 1907.
Sunken Port Royal
The two-thirds of the seventeenth-century town that slid into the harbour in 1692 is still there, under a few metres of water and silt, buried quickly enough that buildings, streets and everyday objects were preserved where they fell. It is among the most important submerged archaeological sites in the Americas, and diving on it is restricted to research.
Rivers
Short and mostly dry, the Hope and the Sandy Gully, which flood violently in storms.
Climate Patterns
Kingston has a tropical climate, made hotter and drier than the rest of Jamaica by the mountains that stand between it and the prevailing wind.
Temperature
Warm to hot throughout the year, with very little seasonal variation. Daytime highs run 29 to 32°C and nights fall to 21 to 24°C, with humidity high enough that the felt temperature is regularly above 35. The sea breeze from the harbour is what makes the afternoons tolerable, and it is why the waterfront is often more comfortable than a few streets inland.
Rain shadow
The city sits on the leeward side of the Blue Mountain range, which strips the moisture out of the north-easterly trade winds before they reach it. Kingston receives around 800 millimetres a year while the mountain slopes a few kilometres away receive several times that — one of the sharpest rainfall gradients on the island.
Seasons
Two wet peaks, in May and again from September to November, with December to April the dry stretch. Rain falls as short, heavy afternoon downpours that flood the gullies and clear quickly.
Hurricanes
June to November, peaking August to October. Jamaica has been hit hard several times, and the harbour and low-lying districts are exposed to surge.
Water supply
The rain shadow that keeps the city dry also makes it dependent on catchment from the mountains behind it, and drought years bring rationing on a published schedule. Visitors mostly notice it as an intermittent supply in older buildings; hotels have tanks.
In the mountains
Markedly cooler — 10 to 20°C at altitude, and cold at the summit before dawn.