Colombia
Weather locations in Colombia
Choose a location in Colombia to view its available forecast products.
Colombia illustrated weather map
4 mapped locations
Only locations with a verified coordinate are marked. The complete location list is below.
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Climate of Colombia
Country climate guideColombia straddles the equator, but altitude rather than latitude determines its climate. The Andes split into three great ranges that push the habitable zone from the Caribbean shore in the north to the Amazon in the south, and the temperature at any given place is set almost entirely by its height.
Main climate types
Köppen's scheme recognises tropical rainforest in the Amazon lowlands and on the western Pacific slope, tropical wet and dry in the seasonally rained Caribbean shore and the upper Magdalena valley, and tropical monsoon and savanna types elsewhere. Above that, a band of tropical montane climate wraps the Andean ridges, grading from warm lowland through cloud forest onto the high páramo, a cool alpine zone that may see frost on any night of the year.
Temperatures
The pattern at a fixed place is that temperatures barely change over the year, but vary sharply with elevation. Bogotá, at 2,600 metres, averages around 14 °C, with a January high near 20 °C and a July high near 19 °C. Medellín, at about 1,500 metres, sits near 22 °C; the Caribbean port of Santa Marta, at sea level, averages 27 °C all year. Nights in the highlands are cool at any time of year.
Rainfall
Totals run from about 400 mm on the driest coastal strips to over 3,000 mm on the Pacific plain. Because Bogotá lies just south of the equator, its wettest months are April and May and again in September and October. The Caribbean coast is far drier, around 500 to 700 mm, with a long dry spell from December to March. The Pacific plain is the exception: at Buenaventura, near sea level, more than 2,000 mm falls, with no real dry season.
When to go
Because altitude governs the weather, the answer to when to go depends on where you are going. Between December and March the Caribbean coast is dry and hot, the best time for the beaches. The Andean coffee belt is most pleasant in the dry season from January to March, although its dry season can still be damp in the mountains. The Amazon and the Pacific are wettest in June and July, and the high páramo is cool after dark.