Weather in Port-Vila in May

A good month. May works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. You should expect rain on 15 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Port-Vila: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 15 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average May reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 0.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 29 °C and the coldest night fell to 22.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 62 mm — roughly 56% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 33 mm in the driest year against 197 mm in the wettest, around an average of 110 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 20.8 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 27.8 °C in April, 26.7 here, 25.9 in June. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 6 days fewer than April had.

Daylight in May

May sits at the dark end of Port-Vila's year — 11.3 hours of daylight against 13.2 at midsummer, holding steady all month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.3 °C in May — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 28.8 °C in February and bottoms out at 25.2 °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

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

May in Port-Vila versus nearby

If Port-Vila is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nouméa is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.6 °C cooler, 1 day less rain. Nadi is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: May works, with September the better month by 9 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Port-Vila

See all twelve months in Port-Vila, or where else to go in May.