Surprisingly, April-Oct is like Haiti! (8)

I believe the answer is:

tropical

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'is like haiti' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'surprisingly april-oct' is the wordplay.
'surprisingly' indicates anagramming the letters (a surprising ordering of the letters).
'april'+'oct'='apriloct'
'apriloct' with letters rearranged gives 'TROPICAL'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for tropical that I've seen before include "it could be too hot" , "Boiling" , "extremely warm" , "Hot and humid type of weather" , "Middle-earth" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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