Kenting National Park is located on Hengchun Peninsula of southern Taiwan, and it is tropical in terms of climatic pattern.
The local area is supplied with sufficient sunshine all year round. You can find a more detailed breakdown of sunshine hours per month in Kenting in this post. The sunshine rate is uniform with an average of about 55%. In terms of seasonal temperature, the summer of the Hengchun Peninsula is longer with the hottest month (July) possessing an average temperature of about 28°C; the winter is not obvious, and the coldest month (January) possesses an average temperature of reaching 21 °C.
Again, if you are interested in detailed graphs of all above data then go here: Kenting Weather Statistics
Hence, these make it the region with the highest temperature and the smallest seasonal temperature difference on the main island of Taiwan.
The annual rainfall of this region is about 3,000 to 4,000 mm in the mountains; it is about 2,000 to 3,000 mm in the hills and tableland. For the flat ground, the annual rainfall is about 2,000 mm.
Kenting White Sand Beach (Baishawan) in June, plum-rain season.
Since the national park is located within the tropical monsoon area, the rainfall is significantly affected by the monsoon. The rainy season is usually concentrated in the period when the southwest monsoon is prevalent, which is from May to October. This is why we concluded here, that the best month to visit Kenting is May.
The rainfall of this period accounts for about 84% of the year. The dry season mostly occurs during the period from November till April of the following year; the northeast monsoon is prevalent during this period.
The phenomenon of alternating wet and dry seasons in Kenting National Park is very distinct, and it belongs to the climate of the typical tropical summer rain type.
Its relative humidity is ranging approximately from 73% to 87%.
Affected by the topography of Kenting National Park, the climate type of Kenting National Park can be divided into two different types according to the difference in the distribution of rainfall between the east and the west sides of the Gangkou River of the territory.
In the dry season when the northeast monsoon prevails, due to the windward terrain on the east side of the Nanren Mountain, there is still a small amount of rainfall, hence it is not excessively dry.
At the mountain’s western side of which it is leeward, the rainfall is extremely rare, and a clear dry season is shown.
Compared with other parts of Taiwan, Kenting area has a more special characteristic of climate which is commonly known as “downhill wind” by the Chinese; “downhill wind” is the common name for the northeast monsoon that blows during every winter by local resident of Hengchun.
The wind speed of the “downhill wind” is as high as 10-17 meters per second, of which exceeds the average annual wind speed (3.9 meters per second) in the area very much.