With a country as small as Fiji and it's political problems it has faced over the years, data collection has been sparse until the military began being greatly influential in the countries politics. The station I will be examining is on the East side of the main island, Viti Levu, and is at the small airport in Suva. Regular data collection did not begin until 1988, but since the climate has remained similar for a great deal of time this did not affect the averages. The main island is formed from a volcano and as a result, it contains mountains splitting the island in half. The airport is on the windward side of the mountains and from that, receives the brunt of the precipitation. The leeward side receives less precipitation from the rain shadow that the mountains create.
These are some visuals for the average month temperature and average monthly precipitation at the station.
![](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tV4sq4e9pppAq1b5H_G0vj3XhcDjQ8aQ-NEiDzhWyw9y5p-KVekIreQwWRjc2za3Mcc_4_7ZXxecUqdpUBXMCtYBQZZVYW3MnWDYd3jReDY4OLz7V9FmelB3u13rqJ90g=s0-d) |
Map of the main island of Fiji. On the East side you can see where Suva sits. This is where the weather station resides. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU9osNQZqunQ5TFBPb_wmCfagXWGUoqXHV4nx5KVGdRergZUHuW-jIj-1QKVNFFyC_h2hyFn1Tk9zezXwEtzbuxu8ygzVbO37V-JUqJiHoZcNAiEG6NUeWdUHpiPPhfn1wpjjjHwLVYuN1/s640/Picture1.png) |
Graph of average temperatures in Suva airport from 1988-2012. Data gathered from the NCDC. Being surrounded by the Pacific Ocean provides similar temperatures throughout the year. Data shows a ten degree temperature difference between the highs and the lows. |
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix6yJ7KsZ0ddkeDa65ymXY0CRoLNJUg7w6z7TlGxZxk5mepdRFCxuZJn9xeUGvNrN5tbaUO42bjhcnkVfpbHRGHZelq8339hPKAv9EGjurGHuZiGrnpin_E75q7HrzBlKxpHsnSGkyI9YA/s640/Picture2.png) |
Graph of rainfall in inches per month from 1988- 2012. Data gathered from the NCDC. This shows that the dry season, respectively, occurs during the winter months along with the lowest temperatures. |
Viti Levu, the main island, is like a lot of other volcanic island locations where it contains several different climates. The mountains from the volcano are not as great as the mountains we know, but are still significant. The island also contains tropical climates inland on the windward side of the island. Being an island it has coastal properties as well. From the rain shadow the West side of the island is significantly drier and has similar weather to the Midwest US. Suva, the city, would mostly be considered coastal tropical.
The Bowen Ratio for Suva would probably be around 1-3. This is because of the amount of water that evaporates in Suva. The amount of latent heat flux is near the amount of sensible heat. Fiji is a maritime location.
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