Country Guide

This is a small country on the north coast of South America, bordered on the west by Suriname and on the south and east by Brazil. Situated between 2° and 6°N, it has an equatorial type of climate which is described in more detail for Guyana.

French Guiana has a large area of lowland; the table for Cayenne on the coast is representative of a large part of the country. Here the main rainy season is from December to June and the months August to October are almost dry. This is the principal climatic difference between French Guiana and Suriname and Guyana.

Otherwise temperature and humidity remain high throughout the year and there is little difference between the lowlands in all these countries. Cayenne is rather wetter, taking the year as a whole, than Georgetown in Guyana and Paramaribo in Suriname.

Only a small area in the south of the country consists of upland plateau where climatic conditions are better represented by the table for Santa Elena in Venezuela.