Task 4, geography and climate

Jamaica is the largest island of the (British) Commonwealth Caribbean and the 3^rd largest Caribbean island in total. At its greatest extent, it is 235 km long and 84 km wide. Like the rest of the Greater Antilles, Jamaica consists mainly of limestone and other porous types of stone. The banks of corals that is so typical for the Lesser Antilles is also numerous along the Jamaican coast, but unlike the Lesser Antilles the island itself is not an oversized bank of corals.  The northern and western parts of the island are dominated by sloping plateaus of ragged cliffs and limestone caves.  To the southeast the Blue Mountains with the Blue Mount Peak as the highest point (2256m) is surrounded by a rough coastline with stone shelves and coral reeves.

            The Jamaican island has mainly two types of climate. The higher northern and eastern slopes of the Blue Mountains and the John Crow Mountains have an annual rainfall of more than 5000 mm. The towns in the south and west however, for instance the capitol, Kingston, is sheltered by the mountains and receives merely 700 mm annually. The temperature near the coast rarely drops beneath 20 degrees Celsius. In the mountains however, the coldest winter days may bring snowfall, although this happens very rarely.

            Jamaica lies in the Atlantic Hurricane Belt, and regularly suffers damages from hurricanes passing by very close to the island. From time to time the island is also directly hit by hurricanes, which may or may not cause high death rates as well as huge damages. The frequency of the hurricanes in the Atlantic Hurricane Belt seems to be negatively proportional with the temperature in the area, according to Wikipedia. This means that the lower the temperature is, the higher the frequency of hurricanes is.