When does the dry season end in Grenada?

According to Caribya:

“Grenada’s seasons are measured by rainfall rather than temperature. The dry season falls between January and May, when showers are few and sporadic. The rainy season is June through December, when conditions are more humid, and Grenada experiences some heavy rainfall.”

This is correct; however, it’s not nearly as poetic as the old Grenadian way of finding the end of the dry season… but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Grenada’s wet season and dry season do vary from year to year. Sometimes Grenada gets what the farmers call a “fat dry season,” that is, a dry season when the rain keeps falling enough to keep the island green. In other years, though, the island may experience significant drought during the dry season and sometimes it can stretch on for months, especially outside of the rainy peaks at the centre of the island.

During dry times, NAWASA – Grenada’s public water utility – will lower the water flow and sometimes cut off water to some neighborhoods altogether for a time due to low levels of water in their catchments. This is one reason why you’ll often see cisterns beside houses. Grenadians play it safe and remember the lessons of Ivan well, keeping backup water available even though the rainfall is sufficient most years. On the island of Carriacou, where the residents aren’t blessed by the rivers and deep water of Grand Etang, rainwater catchment is the only sure source of water, so cisterns abound.

So – how do you know that the little bit of rainfall you saw near the (hopeful) end of the dry season in Grenada is likely to continue enough to plant your crops?

As one farmer shared, “In the earlies, old people say you know the dry season over when the termites put on they wings!”

If you’re ever seen a swarm of termites leaving their nest in search of new housing, you know what he’s talking about! Termites can feel that rain coming, no matter what the meteorologists say.