Most of the Caribbean islands are just 10° - 20° north of the equator. With the sun almost directly overhead, the Caribbean is famous for its hot, sunny climate. But the climate on the islands is not all the same, and some months are drier and hotter than others. Surgeon's Caye © Simon Scoones/Worldaware Click on the thermometer to print out a chart of temperatures on different islands in the Caribbean during a year. Complete the chart by calculating the missing averages for October and December, and for the average temperature over the year for St Lucia. If you need help, click here. From your finished temperature chart, can you work out: Which island has the highest average temperature over the year? How many months have averages above 30°C? Which island would you visit in September for the coolest temperatures? In which months do people in Cuba and Antigua have the same temperature? April has an average temperature of 28.8°C. How many months are warmer? Click here to see if you were right!

	Moisture rises off the sea thanks to all that heat. Winds blow in more rain off the ocean, so there is plenty of rain in the Caribbean too. Can you see the storm on the horizon? © Simon Scoones/Worldaware Click on the rain cloud for a spreadsheet that shows how much it rains during the year on these islands. Use the spreadsheet to plot the rainfall figures for St Lucia and Trinidad on a block graph. If you need some help with this, click here.

	Going on holiday! Jack and Cecile have some holiday plans - can you use the temperature and rainfall charts to help them out? I want to do some sunbathing on Antigua - should I go in June or August? My friend, Iggy can't stand wet feathers! Which month should he leave Trinidad to go and see Dave in Jamaica? I want to go to Trinidad's carnival in February ... what will the weather be like, and what clothes should I pack? © Betty Press/Panos Pictures Find out what the weather is like in the Caribbean today at www.caribweather.net/ - do you wish you there right now?? Sometimes the weather can be very extreme in the Caribbean - two terrible storms have devastated the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic in 2004. In May, heavy rain poured down for two weeks. Rivers burst their banks, flooding towns, villages and fields of crops. 860 people died. Read more about this disaster at BBC Newsround. In September, more than 1,000 people died when tropical storm Jeanne ripped across the north-west of Haiti. Read more at BBC Newsround. The Caribbean also has hurricanes. Islanders have a little rhyme that they teach their children reminding them to be ready: From the rhyme, can you tell when the hurricane. season begins and ends? In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit Jamaica for a generation. Visit BBC News to read about what happened. Pick out 10 words that best describe the effects of Hurricane Ivan. Is your name, Ivan? Or has another hurricane been named after you?? Visit http://kids.earth.nasa.gov/archive/hurricane/names.html to find out how hurricanes get their names. Go to www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/sfl-inttrackmap.htmlstory to find out about the most recent hurricanes in the Caribbean. If you want to know more about hurricanes visit www.fema.gov/kids/hurr.htm or National Geographic Explorer for Kids for an animated cartoon and quiz to help you learn about how hurricanes work.