Contrary to popular belief, there are parts of Mexico that get cold, and Ciudad Juarez is one of those places. In the winter, it does get cold. It also gets really windy, which makes it feel a lot colder. So yeah, in the winter, you need a coat, like an actual coat. Also, in the summertime, it's either so hot you can hardly stand it, or it's raining, torrential rain and flooding the streets. So you need a rain jacket in case it's rainy, and an umbrella.
Most of the time in Mexico City, like in Isla Peluca, all of those places, it's pretty warm. You don't really have to worry about too much, as long as you stay in the shade. It's pretty dry, so it's not that bad. But when the rain season comes in, that's when you may want some good boots or things, because it floods. It can flood a lot. One time, we were walking down the street, and literally, those streets were like rivers, at least knee-high, some of them. That's about the worst they can get, though. You're not going to experience any snowstorms or super crazy weather.
Overall, the weather in Mexico is really nice. Even in the winter, it's pretty mild weather. In the summer, obviously, it's going to be hotter. Up north, it's a lot drier, it's hot. And down south, the further south you go, it gets a lot more humid, very hot.
The weather in Mexico City is actually really temperate. It's kind of nice. It's not hot hot. It can be maybe in the summer I don't think it really ever pushed a hundred But I think it kind of cold in the winter, especially because there's no heating You'll find out that 50 degrees inside is It's pretty cold, especially in the mornings and not good circulation. But as far as actually crazy weather What was weird was how often it hailed. It's not something you'd expect in some place. That's so far south But there were I think both summers that I was in Mexico City, that was 14 and 15, 2014-2015 It hailed quite a bit. It was it was significant to the point that you wouldn't want to go outside It's dangerous out there and we'd go out and we'd take pictures and it looked like it snowed and snowed It'll remind you home a little bit it'll be nice but you don't have too much to worry about
The weather was actually really nice. I don't know. I always thought Mexico, it's just gonna be hot all the time. It's gonna be a desert. Mexico City's totally not like that. It's really high elevation, so it really doesn't get too hot. I mean, if you're outside all day, it will get hot. One thing though is that during the rainy season, it will rain every single day at like 2 o'clock. So just be ready for that. Get used to that. It doesn't get too cold either, but you will need like a sweater or something.
So weather in Chihuahua, mostly summertime and into fall. In Fahrenheit, you're going to be plus 100 most of the time, about 40-50 degrees celsius. So amazingly hot. However, once it does change to wintertime in the fall, the change is drastic, especially in Chihuahua. I did actually see snow. I was in the Sierra and San Juanito and in La Junta, and we would see snow sometimes, usually for a day or two, October to February. In Ciudad Juarez, we did get a day of snow in December, but I'm understanding that's very atypical, but in reading the news, I see that it happened again this year in 2019.
Mexico City is hot pretty much all year round. In the winter sometimes it gets cold at night but it's mostly hot and sometimes it doesn't rain that much but when it rains it it pours like crazy. One time my companion and I were going to Walmart to buy grocery and by the time we got we got off the bus which dropped us off at the end of the parking lot and by the time we ran to Walmart everything we had was just totally soaked um all the way through including our backpacks which was crazy and we were like there were like rivers going across the parking lot and it had only been raining for like five minutes so that was pretty crazy. You can expect to get really wet when it rains.
For the most part, the worst part of like the weather is just the heat. It's really hot, super humid in the summer, like you're gonna get drenched with sweat and just be walking around soaking wet a lot of the time. I know one time in Tampico, so Tampico is a city that's surrounded by water on basically all sides. It's got a swamp, a river, and the ocean. And so sometimes when it rains really hard, it floods the city just because they don't have a good infrastructure. It's full of garbage and it's just not at a really good, it's like New Orleans and Katrina. It's just not a good spot for a city. So that can flood, which is sometimes kind of fun, but also just kind of gross. So just know that, I guess.
So one of the crazy things about the weather in Mexico City is there's a rainy season, a hot season, and basically a cold season. Mexico City is at a pretty high altitude so it does actually get pretty cold there during the winter and during the fall time it starts to rain a lot which can get pretty crazy sometimes especially in some of the higher areas because you'll get a lot of rain that'll go everywhere and it just gets really really cold and really wet really quick which is something a lot of people don't think about Mexico when you hear about Mexico you don't think about cold or anything but but due to the altitude it does get pretty cold during the winter so there are some mountains around it you can sometimes see snow in some of the nearby mountains but so yeah it does get pretty cold there.
Sinaloa has some crazy weather, it really does. Typically it's just super hot and humid but when it rains, man it rains because they don't really have storm drains down there in Mexico and a lot of the streets are dirt and so when it would rain really hard the streets would just flood with water. You'd have rivers of water just in the streets and there's a lot of crazy thunderstorms at times as well.
I was in one area called Cuauhtémoc and it was a springtime and So it was like April and then for a few weeks It was just insanely strong winds like wind so windy that you could walk outside and it would just blow you away Because it was so strong And so that was a pretty pretty funny time because it would blow all this sand around and get in your eyes And it was just really crazy. So if you're going to Cuauhtémoc During the springtime better watch out because you can get pretty windy there
sometimes in one day we we can find like everything we can find like a really hot day but also a warm day and also a raining day like so rainy day like all day or sometimes we can get like a cold morning so it's crazy it's crazy Mexico sometimes I really love it we don't have there's something that we don't have right now is like snow just in the small places in Mexico they have snow but so if you wear a jacket on the morning because it's cold morning maybe in the at noon you need to take off the jacket but then you need to put back your jacket on the night so enjoy the extreme weather in Mexico
People, when they usually hear Mexico, they think, oh desert, everything's going to be so hot and dry all the time. And yes, it will be dry, but most of the time in Chihuahua, which is where Ciudad Juárez is at, it's hot, it's windy, it's cold, there's a rain season, it snows, all of the above. It gets so hot and so dry, so there's just crazy weather all the time, and you really never know what to expect. But always plan for hot, snow, rain, wind, just everything.
The interesting thing I found with Mexico City weather is that it rains really hard when it does rain and it comes kind of out of nowhere. There's kind of a like a heavy rain monsoon season towards the end of the summer most years and it would be completely clear day in the morning sometimes and by the afternoon it's just raining buckets. I remember one time it was a totally clear day and we heard on the radio a reporter from downtown saying that it was just raining cats and dogs and it was crazy there and so we finished lunch and we ran home really quick and got our jackets and umbrellas just in time for just heavy heavy rain to hit. So just keep that in mind if it's really really humid in the morning that means it's probably gonna rain in the afternoon is what I learned from some of those experiences.
There are some times when it just rains, and rains, and rains, and rains, and rains. There's times, I remember, where you'd step, and you would just go way above your shoes, and it would just be, at least maybe this was just the year I was there, one of the years I was there, but it rained until it flooded the streets, and the storm drains would fill, and I remember just walking through really deep rain, but that's where you just, it's fun, because you just work through the rain, and you're just, you're soaked, and you keep working, and it's really fun. So, that's something to look forward to, is the tons of rain. So, not all the time, it was just a few times a year.
Overall, Chiapas does have very crazy weather. It's very hot, very humid, unless you're in the mountains which they call Los Altos and that's where the indigenous people live and so there maybe you'll wear sweaters and it'll be chilly but most of the state very hot. The sun is super scorching in the mornings and then in the afternoons it's just downpour rain for quite a few hours. The sidewalks are actually two to three feet high in a lot of places so that the the streets can just like fill with water because they don't have very good drainage and that way you can walk but be prepared to get super soaked. I remember walking knee deep in water sometimes and that's just how it is. Hot and rainy all the time. It's great.
I got caught in flash floods, um, maybe like five times. And something you should know, really gross, but you need to know this, when there is a flash flood, it floods their sewer system, so then the whole entire street is flooded with sewage. And like, you should not walk through that. I had to one time, but like, that could make you so sick. So just be aware, if there is a flash flood, don't walk the streets.
Mexico City gets crazy. I remember the first time that I was in a really crazy rainstorm. The streets were flooded like four or five feet and cars were still going and people were floating all over the place. That's a little bit of an exaggeration but like it rains so much especially in the city and the streets don't have very good irrigation systems so when you're walking around you're just tromping through water. So take boots. Never snowed but in December it like actually gets cold. The houses are concrete so at night it gets really really cold.
So one thing about Mexico is the rainy season and I guess there's also a windy season like in March. It's super windy But then like July or August through October it gets super rainy at night so if you're Leaving the house and it's like not rainy. I Would still bring an umbrella and make sure you have plenty of changes of shoes Because you're gonna need to let your shoes dry like every other day during that season because it's like the streets flood Like they don't have very good like drainage systems And so it's like super super floody and the streets turn into rivers literally So yeah, just make sure you're plenty of shoes bring an umbrella even if it doesn't look like it's gonna rain and have fun
One time when I was, I was living in a little village up at the base of a volcano and my, the street outside our house was the bed of a river, but they just blocked it off so people could use it as a street. But one day it rained so much that the, the river overflowed and then flowed down the street. So we walked outside and our street was a literal river, like rushing rapidly, could have gone whitewater rafting down. It was super, it was kind of funny, took a cool video, but there's a lot of, of unexpected weather changes like that that happen.
Well, the weather is just super bipolar. In the summer, you're gonna be sweating like none other. I've never been so hot in my life. Walking through, it felt like I was in an oven. The air was palpable. It was just so hot. But then in the colder rain months, they have so much rain. It's crazy. The streets will fill with water. They'll start flooding up to the sidewalk level, and you'll be walking through, get water all over your shoes. You'll just be soaked. It was definitely an experience that I've never had before in my life. And I learned a lot from the weather. I've never been so wet in my life, except for when I'm swimming, obviously, and also never been so hot.
In Villahermosa, in the capital, it gets really, really, really humid because it's a valley, so it's like all the humidity just sinks in there, so it gets really hot. And you get used to it, but it's good to have, just drink lots of water.
So, Oaxaca is not necessarily known to have kind of crazy weather. There's lots of rain during the spring and sometimes it can get cold, but something I would make you aware when you go to Oaxaca is if there's frequent earthquakes. In fact, last year there was a I think a 7.8 point Richter scale earthquake that hit the Ismo, the jungle region. And so that's something that I was kind of able to experience. There were little earthquakes, not big ones, that you would feel every once in a while. And you would encounter a lot of rain, I mean just flooding the streets. But that's why Oaxaca is so green, because there's a lot of rain in the fall and in the spring.
It was always pretty hot and humid. I remember several times where we'd get hurricane warnings and we weren't allowed to go outside. Sometimes it'd be so much rain and the streets would just be flooded so you'd just like be walking, wading in this river. Like one time it was up to my knees and we were just walking through it and so I just took off my shoes because it wasn't even worth it. You're just so soaked.
In Mexico City, it rains a ton, especially in what we would call like the summer months, right? So one time I was in a place that was called Tacuba. Actually, they changed the word name recently. Now it's Granada. So if you end up in Granada, it rains a lot there in Mexico City, and once it got so bad that the water got up to my knees, and we were trying to go around helping people with bailing water out of their houses with water up to my knees, and it was just coming down so hard. So beware of the rain. You don't want rain clothes in Mexico City.
Chiapas has two different seasons. One is the rainy season and one is the dry or windy season. And both of these seasons have crazy weather. In the rainy season, it's super super hot in the morning, really humid, and then in the afternoon it starts to rain and it doesn't stop. And the streets flood and pretty soon you're walking through a river, except it's the street. So be sure to bring boots or shoes that are waterproof for that time. And then during the windy season in the northern part of the state, it gets pretty windy.
So the weather in this part of Mexico and Villahermosa area is extremely hot and humid. Every once in a while you get like tropical storms that pass by and the rain is insane. When it's rain season it's like non-stop. In the cities there's lots of flooding when that happens, like the sewers just flood and water's up to your knees. If you're really tall, if you're short then it's up further. It's yeah, it's really really a lot of rain and I mean beautiful area but the reason it's so beautiful is because the amount of rain they get.
The weather can be pretty awful. There can be a ton of rain in the rainy season, so I would suggest that y'all bring a nice rain jacket that you won't get wet in.
Three months out of the year, they call it the canicula. I'm pretty sure it's from June to August, June, July, August, or there's a 30-day period between those three months where it's just super hot. And for me being from Hawaii, pretty tropical, pretty cool breeze, island breeze. It was different to kind of adapt to that kind of weather that I never had really experienced, like hot, hot weather.
The weather in Oaxaca for the most part is just super hot and super humid, so I would definitely not get prepared for that. But there's definitely about one month period probably, usually during May if I remember correctly, where the rains just get pretty crazy. And I was in a lot of different cities where the rain would flood the streets and it would be up to our knees at some point, but that's really like the worst it gets is definitely during May, May, June as far as I remember. So it's definitely important to make sure you're bringing like a good umbrella and good waterproof shoes.