Cartagena, Colombia Weather by Month: The Dry Season, the Humidity and the Wet Months

What is the weather in Cartagena, Colombia, in one minute?

Cartagena sits on the Caribbean coast of Colombia (not the Spanish city of the same name) and it is hot every month, with highs of 30° to 33° and nights near 25°. There is no cool season. What changes is the rain, and with it the humidity: one long dry stretch around the new year, one long wet block from May to November. Here is the year:

Averages 2015-2025 · Source: Open-Meteo, CHIRPS · How we measure

Read the rain line first: almost nothing from December to March, a step up in April, and a long wet stretch that peaks in October. The temperature band is nearly flat. For one month at a time, the Cartagena page is quicker.

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When is the dry season in Cartagena?

December to March, with February the driest. December has 34 mm; January to March have 8, 2 and 9 mm, and at most a rainy day in each. Cloud thins to about 32 to 46 percent, the clearest skies of the year, against 78 to 87 percent in the wet months.

April is the turn: 41 mm, about 5 rainy days and cloud back up at 72 percent. If your stay straddles March and April, expect the first rain toward the end.

When is it wet, and how wet?

May to November. From May to September the rain is 98 to 140 mm a month on 11 to 12 rainy days. Then the peak: 237 mm in October on about 15 days, and 185 mm in November on about 12.

That is wet but not extreme, and the shape is the useful part: Cartagena has one long wet block and one clearly dry one. Medellín, covered below, has two rainy seasons and no month as dry as February in Cartagena.

How humid is Cartagena?

Humid all year, and this is the part most weather tables skip. In the dry months it is 72 percent in February, 73 in March and 75 in January. From May it jumps to 84 percent and sits at 85 in September, October and November. December eases to 80.

At a 30° high, the gap between 72 and 85 percent is the gap between a hot day and a sticky one. The wettest months are also the stickiest, so air conditioning matters more in October than in February. Our data holds air temperature, not a heat index, so we give no "feels like" number.

How hot does it get?

Highs are 32° to 33° from January to April, and ease to 30° or 31° from May, because the rain cools the afternoons a little. March is the hottest at 33°. Lows barely move, between 24° and 26° all year. The choice is between hot and dry and hot and wet.

Cartagena or Medellín for a winter stay?

For December to March they are opposites. Cartagena is hot, sunny and dry; Medellín is mild, cloudier and rainy on and off:

If you want to be on a beach in the sun, choose Cartagena. If you want to work through the day without a fan, choose Medellín, which has its own page: Medellín weather by month. Many nomads use both, Cartagena for the dry months and Medellín for cooler air. In October and November both are wet, so neither wins on weather then.

Who should come when?

For a month of work in the sun, January to March; December is nearly as dry. For a quieter stay, April and the start of May are the shoulder, at 41 and 98 mm. Avoid October and November unless you are happy with rain on 12 to 15 days a month.

For other warm and dry places in the same months, see where is warm in January, where is warm in February and the Caribbean in winter.

What would we do?

Plan Cartagena for January to March, with December as a gentler start. Weigh the humidity as hard as the rain: if you work indoors all day, the stay depends on the air conditioning, not the sky. Leave October and November for Medellín or somewhere else.