Like almost all countries in Central America, Curacao sometimes experiences substantial rainfall. But when is it rainy season in Curacao and how much does it bother you as a tourist?
Rainy season in Curacao: when?
Curacao’s rainy season is roughly from September to the end of December, but can vary a few weeks from year to year. The most intense rains usually fall in October and November, but some rain can certainly fall in the weeks before and after as well.
The rain on Curacao
In itself, the rainy season in Curacao does not have to be a problem at all for your vacation to Curacao. Of course you would prefer a vacation without rain, but the fairness is also that especially in October through mid-December, prices for airfare and vacations to Curacao are lower. And that can make the occasional shower not so bad. 😉
Especially at night
Of course, there is no guarantee, but usually most of the rain in Curacao falls at night, when you are sleeping soundly under your mosquito net. When you wake up in the morning you may see some wet spots on the street and the drops on the plants in the garden, but much more than that you will not notice that you are vacationing in Curacao during the rainy season.
Rainfall radar Curacao
If you want an up-to-date picture of rain on Curacao, you can check the Rain Radar for Curacao. Super convenient, because it happens regularly in Curaçao that it rains somewhere but several kilometers away there is -literally- not a cloud in sight. If you want to know what the weather will do in the coming days, you can also download Infoplaza’s app, which also includes a push notification if it’s going to rain.
More on the Rain radar and weather app for Curacao.
The big advantage
Going on vacation to Curacao in the fall has the great advantage of being the most advantageous time of the year to go to Curacao. In the Netherlands, the period between summer vacations and Christmas vacations is always the quietest time of the year in terms of “going on vacation,” so the tour operators try to tempt you with nice discounts just for that period.
How much do you suffer from the rainy season in Curacao?
The inconvenience of rain in Curacao is really not as dramatic as it may seem. In practice, it will mean that once or twice a day there might be a rainstorm of about fifteen minutes. Often 10 minutes later it will be sunny again with -literally speaking- not a cloud in the sky. Even during the rain it is still nice and warm, and the rainwater has a pleasant temperature.
Our experience with the rainy season in Curacao
In all our naivety, our very first vacation to Curacao was booked for late November, so without knowing in advance we were in the middle of the rainy season. In the end, it wasn’t too bad. Anyway, sometimes we liked that it wasn’t a scorching hot sun all day, and if we were on the beach and it started to rain, we would just huddle under the umbrella for a while. Our children regularly enjoyed running through the rain and stomping in the puddles, because playing in a “big hot shower” is obviously fun!
Fall 2022 and 2023
2022
The fall of 2022 saw exceptional rainfall in Curacao. October and November saw higher than average whole-day rains. This can happen, of course, just as a Dutch summer that is also much wetter one year than the year before and after. So let 2022 certainly not be a measure of what Curacao is like during the rainy season either.
2023
So far (mid-October 2023) it has remained dry. There was one heavy shower last week but that’s about it for this year so far. The island is actually far too dry; it hasn’t rained -except for that one shower last week- for months.
Street nuisance
If you take to the streets during a heavy rainstorm, be careful. All the dust on the streets means that during a rainstorm, the roads can become quite slippery. There are also occasional large potholes in the road. If it’s dry you can see them from a distance and drive around them. But during a rainstorm, there are plenty of puddles on the road, and you can no longer distinguish an ordinary shallow puddle from a deep pothole. So try to avoid the puddles as much as possible if you go out by car during or shortly after a rainstorm.
Water drainage on Curacao
Curacao’s stormwater drainage system is not well equipped everywhere to handle the spontaneous supply of a huge amount of rainwater. As a result, in some places the roads became completely flooded. This is because, for example, the drain is not used for almost the entire year, so all sorts of debris accumulates in it. Then when a lot of rain suddenly falls, all that waste causes the water drain to clog.
Rainy season = Mosquito season
A disadvantage of the rainy season on Curacao is that there can be some more nuisance of mosquitoes on Curacao. The small puddles of water created everywhere by the rain (in garbage, gardens, potholes, etc.) provide a great opportunity for the mosquito to lay eggs. And the mosquito on Curaçao seems to be especially fond of delicious tourist blood, so rub in with DEET carefully, or the mosquitoes will really take you down hard.
No hurricanes
During the rainy season, you also always hear about the hurricanes sweeping through Central America. Because Curacao is located on the south side of Central America, hurricanes and tropical storms almost always “pass over” Curacao. Once every few years a storm may noticeably sweep by, but often the eye of the hurricane will be relatively far away from Curacao.
Conclusion – rainy season Curacao
In short, all in all, the rainy season on Curacao is absolutely no reason to stay away from Curacao. Just go and you’ll find that the occasional rain shower is actually quite refreshing in between all the heat. And of course the great advantage that a vacation to Curacao during the rainy season can be considerably cheaper than during any other time of the year.
