We went the last week of March and the first week of April last year. The weather was great but we were the last guests for the summer at the resort we stayed at on Cat Island. Several of the smaller places on the out islands that we stopped at said they shut down for the summer around then.
Almost nowhere shuts down on the islands until at least early to mid August, and most not until late Aug through late Oct. Sure, hurricane season is technically from Jun-Nov, but large scale organized storms are very rarely an issue down there until mid Aug or later.
It doesn't look like the temperatures change all that much but they said business slows down so much once it warms up in the US that it doesn't make sense to stay open and they can get hit by a hurricane any time between the end of May and early October.
Sure, they might not change much on paper, but in the winter and early spring, you get a lot of cold fronts with a strong W and NW wind, which make things feel colder than they should. Its not just the flying weather or what is comfortable for eating dinner outside, but for many of us, we want great weather for boating as well. Summer is hands down the best time of year for that.
Not to mention, as I alluded to earlier, I want as much daylight every evening as I can possibly squeeze. In Dec it'll be dark by 5:45, but in Jun-Jul it won't be dark until almost 8:15. 2 and 1/2 hours of extra daylight each evening is reason enough to not go in the winter, even though its cold back at home.
(Latest sunset at 23 deg latitude is actually 2nd week of July, not the summer solstice)
Heck.......I fret over just a 15 minute earlier sunset, flying from Exuma to Mayaguana!
More thunderstorms in the spring and summer, make sure you have good weather source for Bahamas.
The convective activity in the Bahamas is easy as pie to avoid with nothing more than the Mark II eyeballs! Just see and avoid, and fly around areas where the cumulus tower up and likewise avoid the (very) easily seen rainshafts that are usually isolated.
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