Winter Weather at Punta Cana International Airport Dominican Republic

Daily high temperatures are around 83°F, rarely falling below 80°F or exceeding 86°F. The lowest daily average high temperature is 82°F on January 6.

Daily low temperatures are around 74°F, rarely falling below 70°F or exceeding 77°F. The lowest daily average low temperature is 72°F on February 2.

For reference, on August 27, the hottest day of the year, temperatures at Punta Cana International Airport typically range from 78°F to 88°F, while on January 29, the coldest day of the year, they range from 72°F to 83°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average winter temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Afareaitu, French Polynesia (6,071 miles away); Mombasa, Kenya (7,496 miles); and Mramani, Comoros (7,979 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Punta Cana International Airport (view comparison).

© OpenStreetMap contributors

Compare Punta Cana International Airport to another city:

CompareMap

The winter at Punta Cana International Airport experiences rapidly decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 35% to 21%. The lowest chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 18% on January 13.

The clearest day of the winter is January 13, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 82% of the time.

For reference, on May 30, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 75%, while on January 13, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 82%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. At Punta Cana International Airport, the chance of a wet day over the course of the winter is rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 17% and ending it at 9%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 26% on November 2, and its lowest chance is 8% on March 9.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the winter at Punta Cana International Airport is decreasing, starting the season at 1.7 inches, when it rarely exceeds 3.9 inches or falls below 0.2 inches, and ending the season at 0.9 inches, when it rarely exceeds 2.4 inches.

Over the course of the winter at Punta Cana International Airport, the length of the day is increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 41 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 27 seconds, and weekly increase of 3 minutes, 12 seconds.

The shortest day of the winter is December 21, with 11 hours, 1 minute of daylight and the longest day is February 28, with 11 hours, 46 minutes of daylight.

The earliest sunrise of the winter at Punta Cana International Airport is 6:49 AM on December 1 and the latest sunrise is 19 minutes later at 7:08 AM on January 18.

The earliest sunset is 5:55 PM on December 1 and the latest sunset is 44 minutes later at 6:39 PM on February 28.

Daylight saving time is not observed at Punta Cana International Airport during 2024.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:57 AM and sets 13 hours, 15 minutes later, at 7:12 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:01 AM and sets 11 hours, 1 minute later, at 6:02 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the winter of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy at Punta Cana International Airport is decreasing during the winter, falling from 99% to 94% over the course of the season.

For reference, on May 23, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 100% of the time, while on March 6, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 93% of the time.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed at Punta Cana International Airport is essentially constant during the winter, remaining within 0.3 miles per hour of 13.3 miles per hour throughout.

For reference, on December 22, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 13.6 miles per hour, while on October 9, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 10.0 miles per hour.

The highest daily average wind speed during the winter is 13.6 miles per hour on December 22.

The hourly average wind direction at Punta Cana International Airport throughout the winter is predominantly from the east, with a peak proportion of 83% on December 20.

Punta Cana International Airport is located near a large body of water (e.g., ocean, sea, or large lake). This section reports on the wide-area average surface temperature of that water.

The average surface water temperature at Punta Cana International Airport is gradually decreasing during the winter, falling by 3°F, from 82°F to 79°F, over the course of the season.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

Temperatures at Punta Cana International Airport are sufficiently warm year round that it is not entirely meaningful to discuss the growing season in these terms. We nevertheless include the chart below as an illustration of the distribution of temperatures experienced throughout the year.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days at Punta Cana International Airport are very rapidly decreasing during the winter, decreasing by 8,483°F, from 10,058°F to 1,575°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy at Punta Cana International Airport is rapidly increasing during the winter, rising by 1.6 kWh, from 4.8 kWh to 6.4 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Punta Cana International Airport are 18.567 deg latitude, -68.363 deg longitude, and 26 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Punta Cana International Airport is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 79 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 30 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (384 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (2,346 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Punta Cana International Airport is covered by cropland (42%), trees (25%), water (13%), and grassland (12%), within 10 miles by water (57%) and cropland (17%), and within 50 miles by water (79%).