Costa Rica Retirement – Weather

Part of the challenge in Costa Rica is that in spite of its diminutive size, there’s plenty of weather and conversation can pass far into the evening covering microclimates and other meteorological vagaries.

It does mean you can pretty much choose from a varied menu of temperatures and climes to suit your inclinations and personal thermostat.

Even knowing that Costa Rica is a tropical country, let’s translate that into the regional realities when deciding exactly where and when to visit or even settle down. If your skin won’t stand scorching sun, then Guanacaste to the north-west is not for you.

All Costa Rica weather data courtesy of the Instituto Meteorológico Nacional.

And much as I love hiking the Central Valley hills, those days when the highland villages are socked in with drippy, view-obliterating cloud, I’m glad my house is tucked down in the warmer, brighter valley of Pozos de Santa Ana, just west and 200M lower than San José.

Sweaters are a must up at altitude while coastal Puntarenas can leave you literally gasping for a shot of cold air. One constant feature happily acknowledged by many northern transplants is the unchanging (or nearly) twelve hours of daylight.

Alright, with dawn breaking just before 5 am, it might seem a tad on the bright side so early on, but the lack of grey half-light winter days more than makes up for it.

Without the rain, Costa Rica would not be the verdant paradise it is and it should be no deterrent to visiting or living here. With two oceans flanking the country and a range of mountains in the middle, things get wet and national rainfall averages 250 cm annually.

Much of this falls in intense dramatic downpours that can cause power outages and flooding but sometimes days of steady rain feel reminiscent of English summers! Generally, it rains mid-afternoon around the Central Valley and Pacific and late afternoon or evening along the Caribbean coast.

Hurricanes and other blows of nature

If hurricanes are a climate feature where you come from, relax, they are extremely rare here. The last hurricane to hit the Pacific south-west was in 1996 and in 1969 Martha brushed the Caribbean shore. More likely, hurricane activity elsewhere will cause localized unusual weather with several days’ rainfall and storms.

Wind isn’t often mentioned in the guide books, but it is a factor around Central Valley, and residents living here with pretensions to being houseproud roll their eyes with understanding.

During the dry season, it sometimes feels like surviving in a wind tunnel. Around Santa Ana, my domestic frustration is fanned since I’m currently downwind from a construction site churning up black dust that permeates any window or door.

After a few weeks’ renting, I was ready to move out as yet another layer of dust made a skid-pan of my floors and coated furniture, until wiser friends around the area pointed out their own earth-laden surfaces and blessed the fact that most of us can afford maids to help keep things under control. And, after all, it is a temporary phenomenon, worst during February and March before the rains come along and turn the dust to mud!

But enough of dirty footprints on the tiles, a blow-by-blow look at the regions may help sort out the meteorological patchwork that makes up Costa Rica:

Central Valley

Lying within the 8th to 11th tropical parallel, San José and environs surprise many first-time visitors by being so mild and even cool. The city lies around the 1000 meter mark and daily temperatures are a pleasant 20 – 23C degrees.

It seems a shame that hotels and offices in the city feel the need for energy-guzzling air-conditioning when it isn’t really necessary. Altitude dictates the country’s temperatures more than the time of year; regional variation doesn’t go much beyond five degrees.

Between 800 m to 2500 m the average can drop from 25C to 14C, falling about one degree for every 100 meters. When the thermometer drops below 18C in San José, Ticos will shiver and complain of the cold.

Snowfall has never been recorded but evenings can be cool so a jacket or warm cover help keep evening chills at bay and only crazy, unknowing ‘turistas’ go about without an umbrella during the rainy season! This extends from May to November with a respite in July or August called ‘veranillo’ (little summer).

The highlands flanking the Panamericana road heading south-east are notorious for being gloomily fog-bound with rain clouds dumping their cargo on the Eastern slopes near to San Isidro de General, and the Talamanca hills adjoining Panama are just plain sodden. Chilly Chirripó, Costa Rica’s highest peak (3840 m), might be drier but it is about the only place to boast icicles although these quickly melt with the morning sun.

The Caribbean

It’s simple, if you live here, you live with the rain. The region has no real dry season although the rains peak around May to August and again, often with storms brought in by rain-filled north-east trade winds, in December and January with up to 300 – 500 cm rain annually.

This makes Easter a good time to visit, falling as it does in the comparatively dry period between March and April. Those trades batter the eastern Talamancas making them the wettest place around but things dry out – relatively speaking – as you head north to the flatlands around Limón with heaviest rainfall bringing out the umbrellas in February/March or September/October.

Tortuguero has a shorter wet season but more intense downpours with up to 97 cm in an average July, which must be annoying for the sport fishing gang trying to hook a prize tarpon.

Pacific Lowlands

With well-defined clear dry weather during December to May, the Pacific lowlands are a tourist destination of choice although it can mean scorching 30C temperatures. Carara marks the divide between the dry north and wetter south.

The rains can fall from May to November when the west winds bring in rain and cooler breezes. July usually hosts the mini-summer, Veranillo de San Juan, with a couple of weeks of welcome respite from the rain.

Guanacaste

Guanacaste is a world unto itself climate-wise. From the Nicoya Peninsula up, you will find lots of sun and the hotel trade know this. Tourist infrastructure is burgeoning partly with the new Tempisque road bridge and Liberia’s smartly refurbished airport and increased flight schedules but also because of that guaranteed dry season and endless sun from November to April.

The rains from May to November bring in good swells for surfing, especially in September and October.

If you like dry and hot, then this is your spot. The dry season with its desiccating northerly winds, called Papagayos blowing around February and March turn the land brown and hard and farming is a tough challenge when average rainfall is under 162 cm. The province’s Tempisque Basin wins the dry prize by fielding a mere 45 cm of rain per year.

Golfo Dulce and Osa Peninsula

Trade winds from the south-east bring year-round rain with storms and energy-sapping heat prevailing from October to December. Caño Island, just 30 km offshore, is hit by more lightening than any other bit of Central America – small wonder the Pre-Colombian communities made it a sacred place, it must have seemed the gods were battling it out.

Although a very wet area, the Osa and Golfo Dulce do enjoy a drier season from December to April but the overall temperatures of 27C mixed with all that rainforest-produced humidity turn the region into a tropical sauna.

But maybe that’s just a fair pay-back for the privilege of visiting a bit of paradise.

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Written by Vicky Longland – Vicky has spent all her adult life in Latin and Central America originally as head of the translation department for an international human development organisation and currently working as a freelance translator and writer for several national and world-wide publications, specialising in people’s issues, the environment and lifestyles.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.