Travel with You, Me, Away
Costa Rica in December: Liberia, San José and Limón climate comparison
Compare Liberia, San José and Limón in December using the 2001-2025 NASA POWER series below to see how strongly the Pacific and Caribbean coasts diverge.
Reviewed
Explore the map
Climate reference locations
These numbered markers show reference locations with historical climate estimates (2001-2025) for each area. Select a location on the map or via the quick buttons to jump to its climate table.
Numbered marker: select a location directly on the map
The map could not be loaded. You can still use the destination list.
Map data: Natural Earth
Location coordinates: Liberia, San José, Limón (Wikidata, CC0).
Why December favours North Pacific bases over the Caribbean coast
In the 2001-2025 December series, Liberia in northern Guanacaste records a mean temperature of 26.3 °C and just 0.6 mm/day of precipitation, and San José in the Central Valley averages 22.5 °C with 2.3 mm/day.
By contrast, Limón on the Caribbean coast averages 24.0 °C with 7.2 mm/day of precipitation in December, illustrating why Pacific and Caribbean stops cannot be planned from a single national weather assumption.
- Guanacaste and North Pacific (Liberia 26.3 °C, 0.6 mm/day): prime December window for coastal stays and dry-forest trails.
- Central Valley (San José 22.5 °C, 2.3 mm/day): mild upland temperatures suited to arrival and departure nights.
- Caribbean coast (Limón 24.0 °C, 7.2 mm/day): pack full rain protection and keep boat or trail plans flexible.
Sources: Costa Rica Climate Overview, Costa Rica Travel Resources and Gateways
Read the local month comparison
Across the selected points, mean monthly temperature ranges from 22.5 to 26.3 °C. Mean precipitation ranges from 0.6 to 7.2 mm per day. Those ranges describe this selected point comparison, not every destination in Costa Rica.
Use the comparison for trip planning
- Check which named point is relevant to the stops on your actual route.
- Use mean temperature as background for planning your activities. A monthly mean includes both daytime and night-time conditions.
- Keep alternatives for weather-dependent plans and check a local forecast close to departure.
- Do not infer rain hours, rainy-day counts or severe-weather risk from millimetres per day.
Source and processing
NASA POWER climatology, 2001-2025. The values are T2M (mean air temperature at two metres, °C) and PRECTOTCORR (mean corrected precipitation, mm/day). City coordinates come from Wikidata. Selection, month extraction, translation, rounding and table arrangement are changes to the original data. NASA POWER data licence: CC BY 4.0. Coordinates: CC0.
Selected coordinates
Continue planning
Climate by month
These historical gridded estimates describe the area around each coordinate. They are not a forecast for a particular trip. Precipitation in millimetres per day is not a count of rainy days.
Liberia
Reference period 2001-2025 · Coordinates (latitude, longitude) 10.6296°, -85.4383°
| Month | Mean air temperature at 2 m (°C) | Mean precipitation (mm/day) |
|---|---|---|
| December | 26.3 | 0.6 |
San José
Reference period 2001-2025 · Coordinates (latitude, longitude) 9.9327°, -84.0796°
| Month | Mean air temperature at 2 m (°C) | Mean precipitation (mm/day) |
|---|---|---|
| December | 22.5 | 2.3 |
Limón
Reference period 2001-2025 · Coordinates (latitude, longitude) 10.0022°, -83.084°
| Month | Mean air temperature at 2 m (°C) | Mean precipitation (mm/day) |
|---|---|---|
| December | 24 | 7.2 |
Sources
- Costa Rica Climate Overview (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (Visit Costa Rica)). Accessed
- Costa Rica Travel Resources and Gateways (Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (Visit Costa Rica)). Accessed
- NASA POWER Climatology API (NASA POWER). Accessed
- NASA POWER temporal data processing (NASA POWER). Accessed
- NASA POWER dataset and data licence (NASA / Registry of Open Data on AWS). Accessed
- Wikidata structured-data licensing (Wikimedia). Accessed
- Liberia coordinate record (Wikidata). Accessed
- San José coordinate record (Wikidata). Accessed
- Limón coordinate record (Wikidata). Accessed