On San Salvador precipitation amounts differ dramatically from year to year. They do not conform to average precipitation totals.

Dr. Ronald Shaklee says climate is used to describe the long term weather patterns that can be expected for a given region.

San Salvador, as with all the islands of the Bahamas, falls under the category of a Tropical Climate. Temperatures are always above freezing. Under this classification the lowest mean monthly temperature for a region must equal or exceed 64 degrees F.

Tropical Climates are also placed into subcategories based on precipitation. San Salvador is considered a Tropical Savana Climate, areas that see a dry season during the winter months.

San Salvador lies within the area in the North Atlantic Ocean that is particularly susceptible to hurricanes.

The path of most hurricanes and tropical storms that move through the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Basin commonly bring them across the some part of the Bahamas Archipelago. As a result the area experiences more hurricanes than any other area bordering the Caribbean Basin and the Gulf of Mexico.

Charles Farquharson owned a plantation on the east side of San Salvador. He kept logs with relatively complete data for the years of 1831-1832. His records indicate that 1831 was an extremely dry year. His journal entries for 1832 did not show signs of rain deficits, or rainfall excess. Comparing Farquharson's historical record to today's records, we can see that the patterns from 1831 and 1832 are not that different from the patterns of today.