Weather in Limón in May

A hard month. May is a hard month in Limón, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 28 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

Limón barely has seasons. May scores 48 out of 100 against a best of 64 in February — a gap small enough that the month you choose matters far less here than the week you choose.

Rain on 28 of the month's 31 days, 11 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 86% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 9 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 3.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 32.5 °C and the coldest night fell to 23.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 98 mm — roughly 34% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 110 mm in the driest year against 626 mm in the wettest, around an average of 288 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 4.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity at 86% is the real story though — it is the number that decides how the day feels, not the 29.5 °C.

How May sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.7 °C in April, 29.5 here, 28.9 in June. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 9 days more than April had.

Daylight in May

Limón sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.6 hours in May, against a range of just 1.2 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.6 °C in May — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.1 °C in September and bottoms out at 27.3 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

May in Limón versus nearby

If Limón is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. San Isidro is close enough to be a coin toss — 2 °C cooler, 2 days less rain. San José is a better bet in May — 3.8 °C cooler, 4 days less rain.

So: May works, with February the better month by 16 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Limón

See all twelve months in Limón, or where else to go in May.