Anguilla Anguilla is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. It is one of the most northerly of the Leeward Islands in the Lesser Antilles, lying east of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and directly north of Sa ...

is an island in the

Leeward Islands The Leeward Islands () are a group of islands situated where the northeastern Caribbean Sea meets the western Atlantic Ocean. Starting with the Virgin Islands east of Puerto Rico, they extend southeast to Guadeloupe and its dependencies. In Engl ...

. It has numerous bays, including Barnes, Little, Rendezvous, Shoal, and Road Bays.

Statistics

Location: Caribbean, island in the Caribbean Sea, east of

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

Geographic coordinates: 18°15′ N, 63°10′ W Map references: Central America and the

Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America ...

Area: *''total:'' *''land:'' *''water:'' Area – comparative: about half the size of Washington, D.C. Coastline: 61 km Maritime claims: *''exclusive fishing zone:'' *''territorial sea:'' Climate: tropical moderated by northeast

trade winds The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere ...

Terrain: flat and low-lying island of

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

Elevation extremes: *''lowest point:'' Caribbean Sea 0 m *''highest point:'' Crocus Hill 73 m Natural resources: salt, fish,

lobster Lobsters are Malacostraca, malacostracans Decapoda, decapod crustaceans of the family (biology), family Nephropidae or its Synonym (taxonomy), synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on th ...

Land use: *''arable land:'' 0% *''permanent crops:'' 0% *''permanent pastures:'' 0% *''forests and woodland:'' 61.1% *''other:'' 38.9% (mostly rock with some commercial salt ponds) Natural hazards: frequent hurricanes and other tropical storms (July to October) Environment – current issues: supplies of potable water sometimes cannot meet increasing demand largely because of poor distribution system.

Islands and cays

The territory of Anguilla consists of the island of Anguilla itself (by far the largest), as well as numerous other islands and cays, most of which are very small and uninhabited. These include: * Anguillita * Blowing Rock * Cove Cay * Crocus Cay * Deadman's Cay * Dog Island * East Cay * Little Island *

Little Scrub Island Little Scrub Island is an island in Anguilla, a British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean. The island is to the northeast of the main island of Anguilla, and west of Scrub Island, Anguilla, Scrub Island. Despite its rocky, inhospitable enviro ...

* Mid Cay * North Cay * Prickly Pear Cays * Rabbit Island * Sandy Island, also known as Sand Island * Scilly Cay * Scrub Island * Seal Island * Sombrero, also known as Hat Island * South Cay * South Wager Island * West Cay

Districts

Anguilla is divided into fourteen districts: AnguillaDistrictsMap

Climate

Anguilla features a tropical wet and dry climate under the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

. The island has a rather dry climate, moderated by northeast

trade wind The trade winds or easterlies are permanent east-to-west prevailing winds that flow in the Earth's equatorial region. The trade winds blow mainly from the northeast in the Northern Hemisphere and from the southeast in the Southern Hemisphere, ...

s. Temperatures vary little throughout the year. Average daily maxima range from about in December to in July. With no mountains to slow or trap clouds, rainfall is erratic, averaging about per year, the wettest months being September and October, and the driest February and March. Anguilla is vulnerable to hurricanes from June to November, peak season August to mid-October. The island suffered damage from Hurricane Luis in 1995, severe flooding of from Hurricane Lenny in 1999 and severe damage from

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...

in 2017, which remains the most powerful hurricane to hit the island.

Vegetation

Anguilla's coral and limestone terrain provide no subsistence possibilities for forests,

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. In other words, a crop is a plant or plant product that is grown for a specific purpose such as food, fibre, or fuel. When plants of the same species a ...

, or

arable land Arable land (from the , "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the purposes of a ...

s. Its dry climate and thin soil hamper commercial agricultural development. In Anguilla

forest cover Forest cover is the amount of trees that covers a particular area of land. It may be measured as relative (in percent) or absolute (in square kilometres/ square miles). Nearly a third of the world's land surface is covered with forest, with clos ...

is around 61% of the total land area, equivalent to 5,500 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, which was unchanged from 1990.

References

External links

Caribbean-On-Line.com
provides detailed maps of Anguilla.

Statoids.com
Anguilla 2001 Census
Government of Anguilla {{DEFAULTSORT:Geography Of Anguilla