The Falklands have a generally cool, oceanic climate, dominated by westerly winds. Lying on the northern edge of the depression belt which passes through the Drake Passage, the Islands experience fairly continuous variations in weather, caused by the air masses and fronts which pass across. Although modified by the 250 miles (400 km) of relatively cold water that separate the Islands from the South American mainland, they experience some of the warming and drying effects of this continent.

The Falklands climate has a narrow temperature range. At Stanley, on the extreme east, the mean monthly temperature in the summer months of January and February is 10 C. In the winter months of June and July the average mean is 7 C. On the west side of the Islands for example at New Island this is significantly higher in summer. The average wind speedis 16 knots, although calmer periods are more often experienced in winter.

Because the Islands weather is dominated by westerlies there is a noticeable difference between conditions on the west side of the archipelago and those on the east. New Island which is the most westerly island may be taken as an example.

Cloudless conditions, uncommon over much of the Islands, are not uncommon on the island. As a result sunshine levels can be higher with precipitation lower.
The average rainfall for the six year period March 1998 to February 2004 being 459 mm. In the same periods for the years 2003 and 2004 the annual average was more than 100 mm higher.

As a result of the lower rainfall, vegetation such as tussac grass can be modified and does not exhibit the same vigour of plants growing on the eastern side of the Islands. Accumulations of snow are not common in the Islands and rarely is the ground frozen.

Weather data has been taken on the reserve for some years and is of fundamental importance to our biological studies. The hope is to upgrade our system so that the New Island weather can be made available internationally