Nicaragua
Weather locations in Nicaragua
Choose a location in Nicaragua to view its available forecast products.
Nicaragua illustrated weather map
11 mapped locations
Only locations with a verified coordinate are marked. The complete location list is below.
Map Disclaimer: Maps and geographic illustrations on this website are simplified, stylized representations for weather visualization only. They are not drawn to scale and should not be interpreted as authoritative representations of national boundaries, territorial status, or geographic relationships.
Climate of Nicaragua
Country climate guideNicaragua bridges the Americas, and its weather follows the same split: a dry, warm Pacific side and a hot, wet Caribbean side, with volcanoes and lakes in between. The country is small enough that the two coasts can differ by hundreds of millimetres of rain in the same week. The defining feature for most visitors is the length of the dry season.
Main climate types
On the Pacific side the climate is tropical wet and dry, with a pronounced dry season from November to April and rain from May to October. The Caribbean lowlands are tropical rainforest, with no real dry season and rain in all months. The interior highlands carry a cooler montane variant, where nights are cool even in the wet season. El Niño and La Niña shift the timing and total of the rains, and the country is sensitive to both.
Temperatures
Managua, at about 450 metres, averages around 26 °C in every month; January and July differ by only a degree or two, and highs in the low 30s °C are routine. On the Caribbean coast, at sea level, the heat is heavier: Bluefields averages about 27 °C with high humidity. In the northern highlands, at 1,300 metres or more, mean temperatures fall into the low 20s °C, and the nights are coolest between December and February.
Rainfall
Totals vary dramatically across the country and within it. Managua receives about 800 mm a year, nearly all of it between May and November, with an almost total absence of rain from January to March. The Caribbean coast takes in over 2,000 mm, and the eastern slopes of the Cordillera Isabelia much more, potentially exceeding 3,000 mm. Mid-November can bring an unexpected second wet spell in the highlands just as the Pacific coast is drying out.
When to go
The Pacific side is at its best from January to April, when the humidity drops, the evenings cool and the roads to the volcanoes and the colonial cities are easiest. The Caribbean coast is driest between February and April. The rainy season, from June to October, brings afternoon thundershowers rather than all-day rain, and the landscape is at its greenest in November and December. Away from the coast, mosquito numbers rise with the rain.