Discover the best time of year, based on historical climate, temperature, and precipitation.
The best weather in Longwood is from February, April, May. — consistent weather climate
🌥Mild
| Score | 83 | 84 | 82 | 84 | 84 | 72 | 64 | 59 | 59 | 63 | 73 | 80 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate | Pleasant | Pleasant | Pleasant | Pleasant | Pleasant | Mild | Mild | Mild | Mild | Mild | Mild | Mild |
| Temperature | 18–20°C | 19–21°C | 20–21°C | 19–21°C | 18–20°C | 17–18°C | 16–17°C | 15–17°C | 15–16°C | 15–17°C | 16–17°C | 17–18°C |
| Feels like | 16–20°C | 18–21°C | 18–21°C | 17–20°C | 16–18°C | 14–16°C | 12–14°C | 11–14°C | 11–13°C | 11–14°C | 13–16°C | 14–17°C |
| Precipitation | 19mm 10 days | 20mm 9 days | 25mm 13 days | 19mm 9 days | 20mm 9 days | 22mm 10 days | 25mm 11 days | 21mm 11 days | 21mm 11 days | 18mm 10 days | 15mm 9 days | 22mm 11 days |
| Sunshine | 12.4h ☀︎ 96% | 11.9h ☀︎ 95% | 11.3h ☀︎ 93% | 10.8h ☀︎ 92% | 10.6h ☀︎ 93% | 10.3h ☀︎ 92% | 9.8h ☀︎ 87% | 8.0h ☀︎ 69% | 8.1h ☀︎ 67% | 8.2h ☀︎ 66% | 9.9h ☀︎ 77% | 11.9h ☀︎ 91% |
| Wind | SE · 28 km/h | SE · 29 km/h | SE · 30 km/h | SE · 30 km/h | SE · 30 km/h | SE · 31 km/h | SE · 33 km/h | SE · 33 km/h | SE · 34 km/h | SE · 32 km/h | SE · 31 km/h | SE · 30 km/h |
| Humidity (%) | 79% | 78% | 77% | 76% | 74% | 72% | 72% | 73% | 76% | 78% | 78% | 78% |
| Day length | 12.9h | 12.6h | 12.2h | 11.7h | 11.4h | 11.2h | 11.3h | 11.6h | 12.0h | 12.5h | 12.9h | 13.1h |
Conventional wisdom points visitors toward the peak heat of February, but April is the true golden hour of Longwood: the summer crowds vanish, while the plateau keeps every ounce of its mellow warmth.
Perched high on the wind-combed upland plateau of Saint Helena, Longwood feels less like an ordinary settlement and more like a solitary watchtower set adrift in the South Atlantic Ocean. This is the windswept quarter where Napoleon Bonaparte lived out his final exile, surrounded by endless blue horizon, pasture, and rolling mist. Most travelers venture to this remote volcanic outpost seeking that heavy historical weight, but the physical reality of Longwood catches almost everyone off guard. Down at sea level, the island can bake under arid cliffs; climb up into Longwood, and you enter a temperate highland world of scudding clouds, Norfolk pines, and open turf. When you choose to step out onto this plateau dictates whether your days feel like an exhilarating subtropical retreat or a damp, relentless battle against the southeast trades.
If you follow standard island guidebooks, you will be told to book your voyage for the heart of the southern hemisphere summer. That advice misses the quiet magic of autumn. By April, the peak season rush has cleared out of the island's narrow roads, yet the plateau remains bathed in the finest weather of the year. The air temperature hovers consistently around 21 degrees, gentle breezes replace the howling gales of mid-winter, and rainfall is reduced to the faintest occasional mist that evaporates before it touches your collar.
Walking the grounds of Longwood House in April allows you to experience the estate in contemplative silence. You hear the rustle of the garden hedges and the distant call of seabirds without competing with tour groups or convoy traffic. The light across Deadwood Plain turns soft and amber in the late afternoons, illuminating the vast grassy expanse where wild wirebirds scurry through the tussocks. May carries this same gentle composure into early winter, cooling just enough to make long cross-country hikes across the volcanic ridges exhilarating rather than taxing.
Winter on the Longwood plateau is not mild in the way continental travelers imagine a mid-Atlantic latitude to be. While coastal valleys lower down the rock escape the brunt of the weather, Longwood catches the direct charge of the southeast trade winds straight off the cold southern ocean. From July through September, the cloud base routinely drops directly onto the district, swallowing the settlement in a perpetual, driving Atlantic scotch mist that locals call water-fog.
During August and September, the apparent temperature drops down near 13 degrees, but combined with sustained highland winds, the damp chill cuts straight through a fleece. The sunlight dwindles to brief breaks between low gray ceilings, and the dirt trails around Deadwood Plain churn into slick volcanic clay. Unless your goal is to experience the raw, brooding desolation that drove French generals to despair, this is the season to avoid staying up in the highlands. If you visit Saint Helena during these months, base your days lower down in Jamestown, making only brief, well-insulated excursions up to Longwood's historic sites.
October presents the single biggest trap in Saint Helena travel planning. Driven by spring holiday patterns and traditional maritime schedules, visitor numbers suddenly spike back toward annual highs. The district swells with travelers arriving on the expectation of spring blooms and reviving sunshine. The landscape, however, has not received the message.
In reality, October remains stubbornly cold, damp, and wind-scoured on the heights of Longwood. Apparent temperatures struggle to climb past 14 degrees, the skies remain stubbornly overcast for long stretches of the week, and the driving mist off the ocean refuses to lift. You end up paying peak-season logistical premiums and sharing footpaths, only to stand in the gardens of Longwood House shivering under a windbreaker. If your schedule forces you to visit in October, pack full thermal layers and plan your outdoor walks for the brief midday windows when the sun manages to burn through the Atlantic cloud bank.
Beginning in late November, the high plateau shakes off the winter gloom. Sunlight returns in earnest, stretching into long, brilliant afternoons that bring the green turf of the district alive. January and February deliver the most reliable, unbroken sunshine of the calendar year, warming the plateau up to a pleasant 21 degrees. For travelers eager to hike the rim of the island or explore the rocky tracks out toward Prosperous Bay Plain, the weather during these months is undeniably radiant.
The cost of that radiant weather is company and congestion. February marks the absolute summit of the island's busy season. Flights fill months in advance, rental vehicles vanish, and the quiet historical intimacy that defines Longwood evaporates beneath the busiest foot traffic of the year. The open plains lose their sense of lonely frontier seclusion. It is a wonderful time to be outside in the sun, but you will share every scenic lookout and historic room with a steady procession of other travelers.
Saint Helena · Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha
Saint Helena · Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha
Ascension · Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha