Weather in Puerto Montt in May

A hard month. May asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 17 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

May ranks 9 of 12 in Puerto Montt: past the worst of the year but short of February, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is wet-season rain: 17 wet days and 6 genuinely heavy ones, which in this climate means concentrated downpours rather than all-day grey. The pattern is usually a clear morning and a loud afternoon, so front-load the day and stop fighting the 3pm hour. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 13 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 20 °C and the coldest night fell to -0.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 69 mm — roughly 42% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 42 mm in the driest year against 394 mm in the wettest, around an average of 163 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 89%, which at 13 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2.6 °C cooler than April, with June dropping another 2.5 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in May

9.8 hours of daylight, losing 1 hours across the month. That is between Puerto Montt's extremes of 15.1 and 9.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 15.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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 Puerto Montt versus nearby

If Puerto Montt is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Santiago is a better bet in May — 10.7 °C warmer, 12 days less rain. Córdoba is a better bet in May — 9.3 °C warmer, 13 days less rain.

So: May is a compromise. February is 41 points better and is what Puerto Montt is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Puerto Montt

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