Climate

Te Pito Te Henua, or Easter Island, by William J. Thompson, [1891], at sacred-texts.com

CLIMATE.

The climate is not unlike that of Madeira, with one wet and one dry season. From April to October the rainfall is copious, and in summer it is limited to passing showers. The mean temperature at the time of our visit (midsummer), in the shade, at 2 o'clock p. m., was between 78° and 80° Fah., and at 2 o'clock a. m. there was a fall of about 6 degrees. The southeast trades blow fresh at the beginning and end of the season, and make the climate salubrious and healthful. Our long fatiguing matches, while making the exploration of the island, were not accompanied with inconvenience from exposure to the direct rays of the sun, the constant breezes making the sensible temperature always appear lower than that recorded by the thermometer. Violent exercise induced profuse perspiration, but evaporation was always free and rapid. Electric storms are unknown.