THE BILT – The year 2024 was officially the hottest year ever recorded in the Dutch Caribbean, with an average temperature of 28.4°C on Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, and Saba, and an even higher 29.1°C on Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. These findings were published today in the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) report, The State of Our Climate.
The report highlights that the combination of higher temperatures, reduced wind speeds, and increased relative humidity compared to the long-term average (1991-2020) resulted in extremely high heat index values. “Every month in 2024 was significantly warmer than the 1991-2020 average for the Dutch Caribbean,” the report states. Curaçao recorded 233 hot days, defined as days with maximum temperatures exceeding 32.2°C (90°F). This breaks the previous record of 198 hot days on the island.
The dry season at the beginning of the year was drier than average across all Dutch Caribbean islands. The wet season, however, showed regional variation: while Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao remained drier than normal, Sint Maarten, Saba, and Sint Eustatius experienced above-average rainfall.
To enhance climate monitoring, new all-in-one weather stations were installed on Bonaire in 2024 as part of a pilot project, integrating them into the Weather Observations Website (WOW), a crowdsourced meteorological network. The island now has eight active stations, supplementing the official KNMI weather station at the airport. Expanding the network will allow better analysis of local rainfall, wind, and temperature patterns across the island.
The record-breaking heat and shifting climate patterns reinforce the urgency of climate adaptation measures in the Dutch Caribbean, as extreme temperatures and changing precipitation levels continue to impact the region.