Het weer in Nationaal park Manuel Antonio in maart

March is inside the driest and hottest stretch of the Costa Rican year, and our row's 19.7 precipitation days would say otherwise until you read the phrase regulars use: intermittent thunderstorms that do not produce much rain. That is 87.4mm spread across those days, under five millimetres each. Being socked in for days would be strange now; rain is always possible and rarely severe. What the dry season does bring is heat on the coast - 29.6C over a 25.4C night reads as 36C and 30C at 77 percent humidity, and with the Pacific at 29.9C there is nothing cool to get into. Their own figures, high 80s by day and mid 70s at night, match ours closely. The record: 11 hours of sun, a 12.4 kph wind and AQI 38.

Manuel Antonio's forum describes a fairly consistent August rhythm: clear, pleasant mornings, thunder rolling in over the mountains by early-to-mid afternoon, and rain arriving anywhere from 4 to 6pm that can continue into the night or clear up fast - though posters admitted the exact timing varies day to day and forecasts aren't reliable. The first half of the month tends to be somewhat less rainy than the back half. It's hot, humid and genuinely one of the wettest stretches of the year here, but the payoff repeated by multiple visitors is how lush and green everything gets - worth planning mornings for outdoor time and afternoons for a siesta.

Forum posters name February as the hottest month of the year here - typically 90-97F in the jungle, occasionally hotter right on the beach - and call it peak season for good reason, with humidity staying high (70%+) under blue skies dotted with big white clouds. Posters describe February as Manuel Antonio's driest month by local standards, though this is still a rainforest climate with real, near-daily rain even at its driest - the honest framing is 'least wet' rather than genuinely dry, since afternoon showers remain a common feature even in February, just shorter and less frequent than the region's true wet season (May-November). Posters are also emphatic that online weather forecasts for this area are essentially useless - conditions shift too fast and locally to trust anything beyond the broad seasonal pattern.