Peru Climate

Out of a total of 32 different kinds of climates found here on Earth, Peru has 28 of them, including dense rainforest, icy mountains, humid savannas, cold plateaus, dry forests, and hot plateaus. Coastal Peru is usually sunny and dry, but receives quite a bit of sea mist and fog from April to November. Peru’s Highlands have a wet season (October to April) and dry season (May to September). During the dry season, the weather is clear and sunny, warm during the day, but very cold at night. In Peru’s Amazon basin, the climate is very regular, with temperatures remaining constant year-round.

With 28 different climates in Peru, temperatures vary greatly. Costal Peru has summer and winter seasons, where temperatures vary from 19-26 degrees Celsius in mid-summer (January-February) to 15-19 degrees Celsius in mid-winter (July-August). The Highlands also have summer (rainy) and winter (dry) seasons. Daytime temperatures remain fairly constant at an average of 20 degrees Celsius, but temperatures cool down a great deal at night, slightly more so during the winter season. Average nighttime temperatures get down to 6 degrees Celsius in the summer and down to 0 degrees Celsius in the winter. The higher the altitude, the cooler it gets. Temperatures in the Amazon Basin are stable year-round and oscillate from 26 degrees Celsius to 40 degrees Celsius at any given time of the year.

Peru’s Andes mountain range forms a formidable barrier to the eastern moisture-rich winds, forcing clouds to rain on the mountain range’s eastern slopes as they rise. Consequently, rainfall is sparse on the western slopes and high planes of the Andes, as well as in Costal Peru where total precipitation can be as little as 0.5 cm of rain per year, mostly concentrated in the winter months of June to October. With the exception of the Andes’ eastern slopes, most of the Peruvian Highlands are dry, receiving between 5 and 15 cm of rainfall per year. Peru’s Amazonian basin, on the other hand, receives a great deal of rainfall with some places exceeding 380 cm per year. While it rains year-round, most of the downpour is concentrated in the months of January to June, the Amazon’s “rainy” season.