The climate of North Cyprus is of an extreme Mediterranean type with very hot dry summers and mildly cold winters and between December and February is when most of the rainfall is concentrated. Because the effect of the sea on atmospheric humidities is always present you will find that the coastal parts are less extreme. Around January and February the sea temperature itself does not fall below 16ºC and in August it can rise to 28 ºC.
From around early May to late September the bright sun shines on a daily average of around 11 hours. Temperatures may reach the occasional highs of 50º C on the Mesaoria Plain, though lower on the coasts with a north-westerly breeze prevailing. The skies are cloudless with a low humidity, 40% – 60%, thus the high temperatures are easier to bear. There are also times when the dry, hot and dust-laden wind blowing from Africa finds its way to the Island.
Autumn and spring are always short, typified by changeable weather, with occasional storms battering the coast in spring and a westerly wind.
With about 60% of rain falling between December and February, short-lived stormy conditions resulting from fairly frequent small depressions prevail throughout the winter. While the Northern Range receives around 550 mm of rain per year, the Mesaoria Plain receives only around 300-400 mm.
Snow and frost are almost unknown in Northern Cyprus, although night temperatures can fall to low levels in winter and snow is occasionally found high on the mountain tops.
The main rain-bearing air currents reach the island from the south-west, so that precipitation and atmospheric humidity are at their greatest on the western and south-western sides of the Southern Range. Eastwards, precipition and humidity are reduced by the partial rain-shadow effect of the Southern Range, a similar effect is caused by the Northern Range too, which cuts off the humidity associated with proximity to the sea from the northern Mesaoria Plain. Eastwards of the Northern Range towards the bays of the Karpaz Peninsula, humidity increases progressively towards the end of the peninsula.
Most of the rivers are simply winter torrents and only flow after heavy rain, and the rivers running out of the Southern and Northern Ranges rarely flow all the year round.