Sunshine
All parts of Cyprus enjoy a very sunny climate compared with most countries. In the central plain and eastern lowlands the average number of hours of bright sunshine for the whole year is 75% of the time that the sun is above the horizon. Over the whole summer six months there is an average of 11.5 hours of bright sunshine per day whilst in winter this is reduced only to 5.5 hours in the cloudiest months, December and January.
Even on the high mountains the cloudiest winter months have an average of nearly 4 hours bright sunshine per day and in June and July the figure reaches 11 hours.
Cyprus Temperature Averages
Meteorological Service - Climate of Cyprus
General
Cyprus has an intense Mediterranean
climate with the typical seasonal rhythm strongly marked in respect
of temperature, rainfall and weather generally. Hot dry summers from
mid-May to mid-September and rainy, rather changeable, winters from
November to mid-March are separated by short autumn and spring
seasons of rapid change in weather conditions.
The central Troodos massif, rising to
1951 metres and, to a less extent, the long narrow Kyrenia mountain
range, with peaks of about 1,000 metres, play an important part in
the meteorology of Cyprus. The predominantly clear skies and high
sunshine amounts give large seasonal and daily differences between
temperatures of the sea and the interior of the island which also
cause considerable local effects especially near the coasts.
At latitude 350
North, Longitude 330
East, Cyprus has a change
in daylength from 9.8 hours in December to 14.5 hours in June.
In summer the island is mainly under the
influence of a shallow trough of low pressure extending from the
great continental depression centred over southwest Asia. It is a
season of high temperatures with almost cloudless skies. Rainfall is
almost negligible but isolated thunderstorms sometimes occur which
give rainfall amounting to less than 5% of the total in the average
year.
In winter Cyprus is near the track of
fairly frequent small depressions which cross the Mediterranean Sea
from west to east between the continental anticyclone of Eurasia and
the generally low pressure belt of North Africa. These depressions
give periods of disturbed weather usually lasting from one to three
days and produce most of the annual precipitation, the average fall
from December to February being about 60% of the annual total.