Weather locations in Paraguay

Paraguay is a landlocked country in the middle of South America, between about 20°S and 27°S, and the Paraguay river divides it into two very different halves. The Western Region, or Chaco, is a vast low plain of thorn scrub and seasonally flooded savanna extending west to the Bolivian border. The Eastern Region is a rolling plateau of red clay and pasture rising gently toward Brazil, and it holds almost all the population, including the capital. There are no mountains, so nothing creates a rain shadow.

Main climate types

The Eastern Region is humid subtropical climate with a pronounced summer rain season; the Chaco, west of the Paraguay, is drier and grades towards semi-arid. A small patch of semi-arid steppe lies in the far north-west of the Chaco. Because the rain arrives in heavy storms and the land is flat, much of it runs straight into the rivers, and flooding in the Chaco and the Paraná basin is regular.

Temperatures

Asunción averages about 28 °C in January and about 20 °C in July, a typical humid subtropical rhythm of hot, sticky summers and milder winters. Summer highs regularly reach 35 °C to 38 °C, and in the Chaco readings above 40 °C are not unusual between October and March. Winter nights in Asunción can drop to about 5 °C, and light frosts touch the eastern edge of the Chaco in June and July.

Rainfall

Rain is heavy in the summer and almost absent in winter. Asunción receives about 1,300 mm to 1,500 mm a year, with January and February usually the wettest and June and July the driest, when less than 20 mm is common. The eastern plateau takes 1,700 mm to 2,000 mm, and the Chaco only about 300 mm to 500 mm, its northern parts effectively arid.

When to go

The dry season from about April to September is the best time to travel, when roads in the Chaco are passable and days are in the low to mid 20s °C. Summer brings heat, storms and humidity. The old Guaraní Jesuit mission towns of the Eastern Region can be visited at any time.