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Forests around Manaus have staged the oldest and the longest forest‐atmosphere CO₂ exchange studies made anywhere in the Amazon. Since July 1999 the exchange of CO₂, water, and energy, as well as weather variables, have been measured almost continuously over two forests, 11 km apart, in the Cuieiras reserve near Manaus, Brazil. This paper presents the sites and climatology of the region based upon the new data sets. The landscape consists of plateaus dissected by often waterlogged valleys, and the two sites differ in terms of the relative areas of those two landscape components represented in the tower footprints. The radiation and wind climate was similar to both towers. Generally, both the long‐wave and short‐wave radiation input was less in the wet than in the dry season. The energy balance closure was imperfect (on average 80%) in both towers, with little variation in energy partitioning …