Jamaica is the largest English speaking island in the Caribbean: 600
miles south of Florida and less than two hours by plane from Miami.
It is 146 miles long, between 22 to 55 miles wide and has
considerable variation in landscape from the coral sands and
ironshore cliffs of the shoreline, through coastal wetlands, plains
and highlands to the misty peaks of the Blue Mountains. It has a
maritime tropical climate. The warm trade winds that blow by day are
called "sea breeze" or "doctor breeze".  The average daily temperature varies according to elevation from
a high of 86F at sea level to a low of 63F in the mountains. The
average annual rainfall ranges from 300 inches on the eastern slopes
of the Blue Mountains to 230 inches in some parts of the south
coast. During the cooler months, December to March the island
sometimes experiences northerners: chill winds and high seas
associated with a cold front to the North. July to September are the
warmest months, May and October are traditionally the rainy months
and there was a time when you could set your clock by the afternoon
rain during these months. Currently, the increasingly erratic
weather patterns are attributed by some environmentalists to
deforestation and global warming. The hurricane season is demarcated
by the cautionary rhyme:
June too soon
July standby
August come it must
September remember
October all over
The last hurricane to hit the island was the savage Gilbert in
September 1988.
The islands of the Caribbean look like stepping stones stretching
in an arc from the western end of Venezuela in South America to the
peninsula of Florida in North America. The Caribbean islands are
divided into two groups:
The Greater Antilles: Forming the northern part of the arc are four
large islands, Cuba, Hispaniola (made up of Haiti and the Dominican
Republic), Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
The Lesser Antilles: The eastern end of the arc consists of the
smaller islands which together form the Lesser Antilles. These
include the West Indian islands of St. Kitts, Nevis, Anguilla,
Antigua, Montserrat (this group is called the Leeward Islands),
Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Dominica (This group is called the
Windward Islands), Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and the French
islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe.
The islands vary widely in size, ranging from Cuba and Hispaniola,
by far the largest, to the tiny islands of the Grenadines. Those
which have English as their official language and are members of the
Commonwealth are usually referred to as the West Indies.
The body of water bounded by these islands and the northern coast of
South America is the Caribbean Sea
Almost at the centre of the Caribbean Sea, Jamaica lies 150
kilometres (90 miles) south of Cuba and 160 kilometres (100 miles)
west of Haiti, the two nearest countries. The closest point to
Jamaica in South America is Cartagena in Colombia, a distance of 710
kilometres (445 miles) almost due south The latitude and longitude
of the capital, Kingston, are about 18 degrees N and 78 degrees W.
Jamaica is the largest of the English Speaking West Indian islands.
It has an area of 11,424 square kilometres (4,411 square miles),
more than twice the area of Trinidad, which is next in size, and
measures 243 kilometres (146 miles) from east to west. Its greatest
width is 80 kilometres (51 miles), from St. Ann's Bay to Portland
Point. The distance from Kingston to the nearest point on the north
coast, Annotto Bay, is 36 kilometres (22 miles).
Jamaica is centrally situated in the Caribbean Zone. It lies on the
direct sea routes from the United States of America and Europe to
the Panama Canal.
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