| 
Click on a city
RELIEF
This ground cut out by the sea (1 700 km of coasts) is primarily mountainous. Ayiti, quisqueya, mean in Indian language highland, mountainous country. The plains, indeed, represent less than 20% of the territory; those of littoral are narrow and rise abruptly.
The plains of north (950 km2), of Artibonite (1250 km2), of cul-de-sac (620 km2) are most important, but they are thin spaces compared to the solid masses of average altitude which, north in the south, compartmentalize the country.
The solid masses of North bar the access of the Cape-Haitian. Port-au-Prince is taken out of clipper by the chain of the Math students and the Mountains Black, in north, and by the solid mass of the saddle, in the south.
This last, where the culminating point of the country is (peak of the saddle, 2680 m) extends to the Dominican border, in the south-eastern part, while the solid mass of the Hood insulates Jrmie and the Large one - Handle.
Let us specify that no volcano animates these mountains, the seismic activity materializing only by earthquakes: destruction of Port-au-Prince in 1770, the Cape and the palate Without-Concern in 1841.
|
 |
|
CLIMATE
Located in the low area subropicale between 18 and 20 of Northern latitude, Haiti jouint of a tropical and maritime cilmat influenced by winds of north-eastern current. Because of its irregular topography, the country represents a great diversity of microclimates governed by altitude.
In the low zones and the plains, the temperature exceeds often the 30 C, but it can also baisssr with 15C in the zones of high-altitude. The average along the coasts rises with 27C, with light variations between the winter and the summer.
The annual mode of pluviometry varies from 400 to 4.000 mm following the area, with an average of 1.400 mm rain on more half of the country (Port-au-Prince) and only 500 mm in the North-West. The southernmost and Western areas are rather dry; the plains, like the Cul-de-sac, are practically desert.
The climate is characterized by the alternation of dry seasons (November-December at March) and of rainy seasons (generally from February to May and October) rather irregular are due to the mountainous character of the country. Attention with the risk of cyclone from July to October. It should be stressed that the deforestation involved the turning into a desert of the climate in certain areas and in particular in the North-West of the country.
Only 2% of the forest surface of origin remain and this one continues to disappear at high intervals. Programs of afforestation are in hand, maias everywhere the erosion of the grounds is worrying.
Thanks to its relief, the island does not miss fresh places. One can quote Ptionville, Furcy, Kenscoff in the heights and Jacmel on the southern part, which profits from a fresh breeze that do not know the other cities suffering rather from a choking heat.
The weather is nice in Haiti all during the year and the climate is less wet all the year than in the Lesser Antilles.
|
