Precipitation

Honduras [1] is a humid place, which is why it has such lovely green countryside. The country averages around 82 percent humidity, with the dampest areas being the north coast and the Mosquitia, and the driest on the Pacific coast.

In some regions, particularly in the south, center, and west of Honduras, the wet and dry seasons are quite well defined. Usually the invierno (rainy season) begins in May or June and continues to November or December. This wet period is often broken in August or September by a three- to four-week dry spell called la canícula or sometimes el veranillo de San Juan. During the rainy season, skies are often clear in the morning, and clouds start to build around midday, leading to an afternoon shower, which usually passes by evening—but, particularly later in the rainy season, there can come several days at a time when the drizzle doesn’t stop and the world is gray and wet.

In much of the north of the country, the seasons are much less predictable, and rains can come at any time of year. On the north coast or in the Mosquitia, the season is not so much dry and wet, but rather wet and wetter still. The rainiest parts of the year on the north coast are usually September–November, when the tropical storms and hurricanes developing over the Atlantic rip through the Caribbean, and December–February, when nortes, northern cold fronts, make their way down from Canada and the United States, often bringing with them days of gray skies and rain. Because of the high humidity and the backing wall of the Sierra Nombre de Dios, the north coast is drenched by tropical storms just about every month of the year.