Het weer in Puerto Princesa (Underground River) in mei

The board calls May the end of summer - very hot, mostly sunny, the rainy season not really under way until June - and our column disagrees with the second half of that. May already reads 206.3mm across 25.5 days against April's 89.2mm, so by our data this is the first wet month rather than the last dry one. Their own description reconciles the two: the rain arrives as a thunderstorm lasting an hour or two, which does not stop the island hopping. The heat is not in dispute - 33.2C reading as 40C at 81.8 percent humidity, nights at 26.1C, and a sea at 30.5C offering no relief at all. It is also local high season, with Filipino holidaymakers as well as visitors. The record: 10.5 hours of sun and AQI 31.

Forum posters describe August as squarely within rainy season for Palawan, with storms and occasional typhoons a real possibility, though Puerto Princesa specifically benefits from sitting on the island's western side, shielded by Luzon and the Visayas from most Pacific-originating typhoons. Posters are consistent that even during the rainy season, a downpour rarely lasts more than an hour or two rather than washing out a full day. Posters note popular non-diving activities - the Underground River, the Crocodile Farm, Iwahig Penal Colony and the Butterfly Garden - all remain available even when some dive operators and hotels scale back for the season. Posters generally describe Puerto Princesa's rainfall as comparable to Cebu's, notably drier than El Nido and Coron further north and closer to Luzon. Posters generally rate August as genuinely rain-prone but relatively typhoon-sheltered and manageable for Puerto Princesa, land-based tours a reliable fallback when the rain does come.

Forum posters call February a strong pick for Palawan generally: stable weather, lower humidity, cooler nights, and clearly cooler than the ramp-up to peak Filipino summer heat in March-April. It sits within the region's dry season (roughly November-April), with posters noting weather can still vary quite a bit by specific location even within that window, since parts of the province see wet-season patterns at different times of year than others. One scheduling upside specifically for February-March: it's before Holy Week in April, when Filipino domestic travelers flood Palawan and both crowds and hotel prices climb noticeably.