Discover why rainforests stay warm, wet, and humid, and how their climate helps support extraordinary life.
Rainforests are shaped by abundant moisture, warm temperatures, and powerful water cycles that influence plants, animals, rivers, and even weather far beyond the forest.
Frequent rain supplies the water that keeps rainforest ecosystems green and productive.
Learn MoreTropical rainforests remain warm through most of the year because they lie near the equator.
Learn MoreMoist air and constant evaporation make rainforest environments feel damp and humid.
Learn MoreTrees return huge amounts of water vapor to the air, helping clouds and rain form.
Learn MoreMany rainforests have wetter and drier periods rather than four sharply different seasons.
Learn MoreChanging temperatures and rainfall can place stress on rainforest species and water systems.
Learn MoreRain is one of the most important features of rainforest climate. In many tropical rainforests, showers and thunderstorms happen often, sometimes almost every day during wet periods. Warm air rises, cools, and forms clouds that release rain over the forest. This steady supply of water supports fast plant growth, fills streams and rivers, and creates damp habitats for frogs, insects, fungi, and countless other organisms. Rainfall can still vary from month to month and from one rainforest region to another.
Tropical rainforests are usually warm throughout the year because they receive strong sunlight near the equator. Day-to-day temperatures can change, but there is often less seasonal temperature difference than in places farther north or south. The forest canopy also changes conditions below it by providing shade and reducing temperature swings near the ground. Warm temperatures allow plants to grow for much of the year, helping support the enormous amount of food and shelter found in rainforest ecosystems.
Rainforest air often contains a great deal of water vapor. Rain wets leaves, soil, streams, and tree trunks, while heat causes water to evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also release water vapor through tiny openings in their leaves in a process called transpiration. Together, evaporation and transpiration help keep the air humid. High humidity can slow how quickly wet surfaces dry and creates ideal conditions for mosses, ferns, fungi, amphibians, and many plants that depend on constant moisture.
Rainforests do more than receive rain—they help recycle it. Tree roots absorb water from the soil and carry it upward, where leaves release some of it into the atmosphere. That water vapor can help form clouds that later produce more rain. In large rainforest regions, this recycling can move moisture across long distances and influence rivers, farms, and weather patterns beyond the forest itself. When large areas of trees are removed, less water may return to the air, which can change local and regional rainfall patterns.
Tropical rainforests do not usually experience spring, summer, autumn, and winter in the same way temperate regions do. Instead, many have a wet season and a somewhat drier season. The timing and strength of those seasons depend on location, winds, ocean conditions, elevation, and the movement of tropical rain belts. Even during a drier period, rain may still be common. Seasonal changes can influence when plants flower or fruit, when rivers rise, and when animals migrate, breed, or search for food.
Rainforest life is adapted to familiar patterns of heat and moisture, so rapid climate changes can create challenges. Higher temperatures may increase evaporation, while shifts in rainfall can bring longer dry periods, stronger storms, flooding, or greater wildfire risk in some places. Species that need narrow temperature or moisture ranges may be especially vulnerable. Protecting large connected forests helps ecosystems store carbon, recycle water, and gives plants and animals more room to adjust as environmental conditions change.