Nicaragua Weather
Wondering about the Nicaragua Weather?
Although Nicaragua is a relatively small country, there are several very distinct weather patterns that affect the climate here. For weather purposes, it is good to divide the country in three distinct sections, the Pacific lowlands, the Atlantic lowlands and the northern highlands.
The Pacific, which is the most densely populated region of the country, is directly affected by the weather that spawns off the Pacific. Fortunately for Nicaragua, its geographic location makes it almost impossible for an Eastern Pacific hurricane to affect it, as these are rarely spawned south of the Gulf of Fonseca, which is the northernmost land that Nicaragua has on the Pacific. In this area, the rainy season usually begins in May and lasts until early September, and the dry season is between October and April. Although always warm, the hottest months are February, March and April, which mark the end of the dry season. Typically the humidity in the Pacific area is quite low, whereas it is usually very humid on the Caribbean side of Nicaragua.
The Northern Highlands usually have the same pattern of wet and dry months as the Pacific, However the weather is usually quite cooler due to the higher altitudes for most of these towns. As such, the departments of Esteli, Nueva Segovia, Madriz, and Matagalpa are usually several degrees cooler that those in the Pacific, like Chinandega, Leon, Managua, Carazo, Granada, Masaya and Rivas.
The Caribbean Lowlands, basically the land east of Lake Nicaragua is more influenced by weather formed in the Caribbean Sea. Here the rainy season is usually later then that on the Pacific, with the rainy months starting more towards July and August and continuing as late as January of the next year, with February through June being the dryer months. This is because of two reasons, first because the Western Caribbean hurricane season begins August and ends in November, and then because the Caribbean is subject to the influence of cold fronts coming down from the north. In any case, the inter tropical convergence zone directly affects all of Nicaragua and weather can be somewhat unstable. Historically, there are very few hurricanes that affect the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua; however there have been some cases these have caused much damage to life and infrastructure. In recent years, the worst case was that of Hurricane Mitch in 1998 that devastated Honduras and did a lot of damage on the Pacific side of Nicaragua due to massive amounts of rain.
