Costa Rica Weather Report

The weather in the central Pacific coast of Costa Rica consists of two seasons.  The "dry" season begins in mid-December and runs through the end of April.  The "rainy" or “green” season begins in May and runs through the first weeks of December.

The dry season typically produces lots of sunshine with little rain. The benefit to this is guaranteed sunshine every day, great water visibility (for snorkeling), and cooler nights (less clouds to blanket heat to earth). The rainy season typically produces sunny mornings followed by afternoon clouds with a chance of showers. The benefits to this season are lush scenery and better surf conditions. The intermittent cloud cover this time of year decreases the wind (and chop) on the surface of the ocean, and the rivers form better sand bars where they meet the ocean (better wave formation).

The School of the World maintains a weather center, located on top of the school, which records the daily high and low temperatures as well as the amount of daily rain.  The air and water temperatures remain fairly constant throughout the year due to the fact that we are so close to the equator (10 degrees north latitude).  The high temperature for the year 2009 (through October 15th) was 92.5°F and was recorded on April 9th, and the low temperature of 65.4°F was recorded on February 18th.  The mean maximum temperature has ranged from 85.3°F in September to 89.6°F in April and the mean minimum temperature has ranged from 71.2°F in February to 76.6°F in August.

The water temperatures range from 80°F in the green season months to 82°F in the dry season months.  The water temperatures are a bit warmer in the dry season due to less cloud cover.

In the months of January through April of 2009, we recorded a total of 5.73 inches of rain, with 4.12 inches of that coming in April.  The rainy season thus far has been anything but rainy.  So far for the year 2009 we have recorded 92.54 inches of rain (January to October 2009), which is almost half of what we received for the year 2008 (approximately 170 inches). What this means for travelers is that they are encountering beautiful weather every day with only light rain a couple of times a week (and usually at night). It is a mixed blessing to have a such a light rainy season- in the short term it means that we are enjoying ideal weather (a perfect mix of the two seasons), but in the long term it could cause water shortages during the next “dry” season.