Costa Rica opens the week unsettled but should turn noticeably drier and windier across the Pacific and Central Valley by midweek, as strengthening trade winds and an incoming push of cooler, drier air over the northern Caribbean are expected to move the heaviest rain off the Pacific and onto the Caribbean coast and the Northern Zone, the National Meteorological Institute (IMN) forecasts.
The first half of the week looks like a typical green-season stretch: bright-ish mornings, then rain building in the afternoon. A band of storm-prone, humid air that often drives our rainy-season weather is sitting right over the country, and after Tropical Wave No. 14 passed through on Sunday, the IMN expects afternoon and evening downpours — some with thunderstorms — over the Pacific, the Central Valley and the Northern Zone from Monday through Wednesday. Mornings start mostly cloudy, with showers along the Pacific coast and a bit of early rain near the Caribbean and the Northern Zone before the heavier stuff arrives after midday.
The big shift comes Thursday. The IMN says the steady easterly winds we call trade winds will pick up from midweek and blow hardest Friday and over the weekend, as a mass of cooler, drier air moves across the northern Caribbean Sea. That drier, windier air should calm things down over the Pacific and the Central Valley, turning the afternoon storms into more scattered, shorter showers — mainly in the Central and South Pacific and the Nicoya Peninsula — while pushing more cloud and rain onto the Caribbean coast and the Northern Zone, especially Friday and through the weekend.
Expect moderate winds with the odd stronger gust in the North Pacific and the Central Valley from Thursday on, strongest in the mountains, where drivers may feel them on exposed ridgelines and high passes. The bigger picture for the week is reassuring: the IMN puts the chance of widespread severe weather low, with rainfall totals roughly normal for this time of year, heaviest on the Pacific side. It also fits the trend so far for 2026, which the IMN expects to be hotter and drier than usual as an El Niño pattern — a warming of the Pacific Ocean that tends to bring us less rain and higher temperatures — sets in during the second half of the year.
Temperatures this week
Temperatures stay close to seasonal, leaning warm where skies clear:
- Central Valley and San José: highs around 23 to 24°C (73 to 76°F)
- Guanacaste and the North Pacific: the hottest and, by midweek, the driest — highs in the low-to-mid 30s°C (upper 80s to low 90s°F)
- Central Pacific: around 29 to 31°C (85 to 87°F)
- Caribbean coast: around 29 to 30°C (84 to 86°F)
For those traveling this week, the timing actually matters more than the names of the systems. In Tamarindo and the North Pacific beaches, today and tomorrow still carry afternoon shower chances, but Wednesday onward looks increasingly bright and hot — the best beach window of the week, with stronger afternoon breezes by Friday.
JacĂ³ and Manuel Antonio follow a similar pattern so plan outdoor tours, beach time and the Manuel Antonio National Park for mornings early in the week, when rain is least likely, and expect a drier second half. Anyone heading to La Fortuna, Arenal and the Northern ara should treat the early-week afternoons as the more complicated stretch on mountain roads, with rain lingering longer there.
Finally, Tortuguero, Puerto Viejo and the LimĂ³n coast will see the opposite trend as rain holds through the week and ramps up Friday and the weekend, so build flexibility into any boat transfers and/or canal tours if you’re heading that away. As always in the rainy season, get longer drives — especially the San José–Pacific coast run — done earlier in the day, and never cross flooded roads, rivers or streams.
You can get daily updates before you head out each morning by checking out our Costa Rica Weather Forecast
