Puerto Escondido Weather by Month: When It Is Dry, When It Pours, and How It Compares With the Caribbean Side

What is the weather in Puerto Escondido, in one minute?

Puerto Escondido has two seasons: a long dry one and a heavy wet one. From December to April it is hot, sunny and nearly rain-free. From June to October it rains on 11 to 16 days a month. May and November are the shoulder months on either side. Temperature hardly changes, so rain, humidity and cloud are what separate the months. Here is the whole year:

Puerto Escondido: Average high and low temperature, °C

Puerto Escondido: Rainfall, mm

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

Read the rain line first: it sits on the floor from December to April, starts to lift in May, peaks in September and is back near the floor in November. The temperature band stays inside 21° to 32° all year. For a single month, the Puerto Escondido page is faster. A rain day here is a day with at least 4 mm of rain, the tropical rule that matches what rain gauges count.

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When is the dry season?

December to April, with January to April the cleanest stretch. December is already dry (4 mm) but cloud still covers 30 percent of the sky. January has 2 mm, February 1 mm, March 6 mm and April 5 mm, and the model counts no rain day in any of them. Cloud is lowest in February and March, at about 20 percent.

Heat creeps up through the window, from a 31° high in January to 32° in April. Humidity is the lowest of the year, 67 to 68 percent. For a long stay where you work outside, February and March have the clearest skies in our data.

When does it rain, and how hard?

Rain starts in May and then switches on. May has 51 mm and 5 rain days, the first sign. June has 150 mm on 14 days, July is a little lighter (97 mm, 11 days), August brings 156 mm and September is the wettest month: 161 mm on 16 days, with cloud over 82 percent of the sky and humidity at 87 percent. October still has 110 mm on 11 days.

We hold monthly totals, not the time of day, so we cannot say the rain comes only in the afternoon; plan for wet spells rather than a dry morning every day. November is the way back: 16 mm, 2 rain days and a clearer sky than October.

When is surf season, and does it match the weather?

Only in part. Surf reports put the biggest swell from about April to September, and we hold no wave data to check that. What we can say is what it means for weather: April is the one surf month that is still dry, and from May to September you surf in the wet season, with grey skies and 11 to 16 rain days from June. If you come for the waves and want sun, April and early May are the compromise. If you come for sun and calm water, December to March.

Is Puerto Escondido drier than the Caribbean coast?

In winter, yes. The table shows November, January and March side by side with the two Riviera Maya bases on the Caribbean side:

November is the clearest gap, with Puerto Escondido nearly dry while the Caribbean coast is still on the tail of its autumn rains. January is still the Pacific's win by a wide margin. By March the Caribbean coast has dried out too and the difference is a day or two. In summer there is no gap worth planning around: both coasts are wet from June to October, and the two Caribbean bases get more rain in June and October than Puerto Escondido does.

So the choice between the coasts is mostly November to January: Pacific for dry weather, Caribbean if you accept showers. For February to April, pick on something other than weather. Playa del Carmen is the cooler and breezier of the two. For the Caribbean side in full, see Playa del Carmen weather by month; for the whole country, best time to go to Mexico for weather compares five bases; for the highlands, Oaxaca and Mexico City.

Humidity and cloud: the numbers the other results leave out

Humidity moves more than temperature. It sits at 67 to 70 percent from December to April, climbs to 74 percent in May and passes 80 percent from June to October. Playa del Carmen is the reverse in the dry months, at 75 to 80 percent in winter, so the Pacific is the less muggy of the two exactly when you would want it to be.

Cloud tells the same story: February and March are the clearest months at about 20 percent, December and January 28 to 30 percent, and June to September 75 to 82 percent. Pick the winter and you get a sun-first town; pick the wet season and you get grey skies on most days.

Who should go when?

• December to April: the winter-base window, with no rain days. Compare with where is warm in January, February and March.
• May: a shoulder month with 5 rain days and 51 mm. The rain is arriving, so expect some wet days.
• June to October: the wet season. September is the wettest month; expect cloud, 11 to 16 rain days and humidity above 80 percent.
• November: a good way back in. It is drier and clearer than October, and drier than the Caribbean side.