Rainy season on Camino frances

[batty]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

 

[C clearly]

i hear its rainy season

I'm not so sure this is true as a generalization. You could search monthly average precipitation in a few representative cities to get a better idea. You will get rainy in some regions, and hot/sunny in other regions. Generally, May would be a good compromise bet.

 

[Anamiri]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

I would guess that every year is different, and to look at a weather forecast.
I walked in May and had a full day in torrential rain in Galicia (that's to be expected). Other than that it rain mainly in the afternoons when I'd finished walking.

 

[Vacajoe]

The rainy season in Galicia is from May 1st through April 30th….the rest of the Camino, not so much. You’ll definitely have some hot and dry weather on the Meseta and summer will have fully arrived in June by the time you reach Santiago

 

[naplesdon]

The old adage in Pays Basque is: Why is it always so green? Because it rains all of the time.

 

[Petsu]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

You never know, years are very different. On my first CF from SJPP to Leon in September the weather was very summery all time, and very hot on the messeta. Then next year I was a bit worried to continue from Leon in the end of June. Well, it was around max 16-17°C the whole two weeks. A perfect weather for walking. And at the same time it was 30°C in Finland

 

[Bradypus]

I had a seriously wet 24 hours on the Frances last summer near Estella. Weather in northern Spain is very unpredictable. More so the closer you get to Galicia!

https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/a-very-wet-day-on-the-camino-frances.82803/#post-1179542

 

[@Ditts]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

I did it last year starting end of April and all of May. I think I only had 4 days rain in all that time. Just pot luck really

 

[Tincatinker]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

@batty, You've not said where you "heard" that but it's provoked a chuckle or two. Northern Iberia doesn't have a rainy season. It has Spring, Summer, Autumn & Winter, or Primavera, Verano, Otoño & Invierno, if you prefer. And it can rain in any of them though the likelihood in any given season varies as it does with the geography. Rain is always more likely in Galicia than in Castilia Leon. And on the Meseta they probably put more effort into praying for rain than they do into praying for it to stop.

A pilgrim on the roads to Santiago is always advised to carry some sort of waterproofing, even if thats just an umbrella. If you are hoping to identify the perfect day to start the Camino it is, in no particular order; last week, next week, today

I wish you Buen Camino but please don't worry about the weather. Worry about your feet....

 

[Edimburgos]

I walked the Camino Frances 5 May to 12 June last year. I think I only walked in rain once or twice. I do remember a period of 7-10 days when there were storms/heavy rain in the mid afternoon but I had finished walking by then.

 

[Dougie]

I would guess that every year is different, and to look at a weather forecast.
I walked in May and had a full day in torrential rain in Galicia (that's to be expected). Other than that it rain mainly in the afternoons when I'd finished walking.

Going by the rain that fell the last two weeks in October in Galicia, I would say October/November was the rainy season.

 

[Mallowman]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

The rain in Spain falls mainly where you're walking. I used an umbrella for rain and shade. I walked in Apr-May and didn't seem like it rained that much.

 

[Kiwi-d]

I walked in September, with several days walking in torrential rain... My rain pants were fantastic, my jacket pretty hopeless, my umbrella (which I also used on very sunny days) useful. Don't worry about the weather too much, it's always going to be there...

 

[DwainS]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

I walked the Frances May- June last year, staring May 18 fromSJPP. I only walked in the rain 3 days the whole trip. It did rain some more days but in the evening after I had finished my walk for the day and even then only a couple times I think in Burgos and Foncebadon.

 

[Anniesantiago]

Yes

 

[CA_Pilgrim]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

It's the luck of the draw when it comes to rain on the Camino. In 2022, I started my Camino on May 10 from SJPDP and had absolutely gorgeous weather the whole way through. Just a little rain at the end going into Santiago. In fact, it was pretty darn hot for a week or so going through the Masada. It was particularly beautiful weather going over the Pyrenees, lots of sunshine and beautiful views. I bumped into some folks that left SJPDP a couple days after I did and they had nothing but fog and rain.

See the attached graph I made of the historic percent chance of rain on the various days of my Camino hike starting with May 10 in SJPDP and ending on June 19 in Santiago. The last couple of days through June 25 were for a hike to Finisterre, but I ended up canceling that part of the trip due to an calf muscle injury on the final days of the Camino.

 

[Jilldearling]

I am starting my camino from SJPD on May the 9th and i hear its rainy season ! ! !
I still have some flexibility around my dates .
Any insights will be appreciated.
I look forward to hearing from anyone that may have some experience or information that might help me decide to change or stay with my plans .If you have walked the path during that timeline i really would like to hear from you.

I walked in April/May last year and used my rain jacket for cold more than rain. 2 days it rained out of 40, one of those days was day 1, the other it poured an hour after we arrived at our destination for the night.

Just walk… the weather is unpredictable… you’ll be fine!

 

[rig085]

Good morning Batty,

Well I do not kmow about rainy season that period, because I started 4 times in SJPDP for my camino around the first of May in 2018,2019,2022, 2023 and I think I averaged in all those years about one day of rain in 33 days !!!
And in all those years that was in Galicia towards the end.
Might have been luck though because sometimes I heard there was some rain just in front or just behing me

Regards from Zermatt, Switzerland and buen camino

 

[krystianw]

You can check out CaminoWeather to look at exact stats from previous years for that date. Here's their report for a May 9th start: https://caminoweather.com/frances/?...Id=209&startDate=2024-05-09&lengthType=stages

 

[David Tallan]

In my experience on the Frances, rainy season is whichever season you happen to be in when you walk into Galicia.