page_title: Maldives
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Maldives / Climate
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Une plage de l'île de Bathala (Maldives). English: A beach of Bathala island (Maldives).
context_page_description: The Maldives are a group of islands in the Indian Ocean. They are southwest of India. They are made up of the Maldive and Suadive archipelagos, with over 1,200 islands. These islands are a part of 26 atolls. And they are divided to 20 administrative atolls.People live on about 200 of the islands. It has more than 1126 coral reefs. It is the flattest country in the world. The highest point in the Maldives is only 2 m high above the level of the sea.
  Malé is the capital, with a population of 150,000 people. It’s official religion is Islam mandated by law.
context_section_description: The Maldives has a tropical monsoon climate (Am) under the Köppen climate classification, which is affected by the large landmass of South Asia to the north. Because the Maldives has the lowest elevation of any country in the world, the temperature is constantly hot and often humid. The presence of this landmass causes differential heating of land and water. These factors set off a rush of moisture-rich air from the Indian Ocean over South Asia, resulting in the southwest monsoon. Two seasons dominate Maldives' weather: the dry season associated with the winter northeastern monsoon and the rainy season which brings strong winds and storms.
  The shift from the dry northeast monsoon to the moist southwest monsoon occurs during April and May. During this period, the southwest winds contribute to the formation of the southwest monsoon, which reaches Maldives in the beginning of June and lasts until the end of August. However, the weather patterns of Maldives do not always conform to the monsoon patterns of South Asia. The annual rainfall averages 254 centimetres (100 in) in the north and 381 centimetres (150 in) in the south.
  The monsoonal influence is greater in the north of the Maldives than in the south, more influenced by the equatorial currents.
  The highest temperature ever recorded in Malé was 39.6 °C (103.3 °F) on 1 January 2000 and the lowest was 20.4 °C (68.7 °F) on 20 March 1989 and 21 January 2017.
caption: A beach of Bathala island
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D5100", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop Elements 8.0 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2016:03:25 14:02:16", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "252", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 3, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "920", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1034", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4330", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "11", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "160", "EXIF SensitivityType": "Recommended Exposure Index", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0230", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2016:02:25 10:29:22", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2016:02:25 10:29:22", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "18/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "18", "EXIF SubSecTime": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "20", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4928", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3264", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "888", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "27", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Landscape", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}