Practically · Weather
What is the weather like, and what should you pack?
Eternal spring is half marketing: you get three kinds of weather a day, and 2026 is a record year at 33.8 degrees at Olaya Herrera airport. There are two seasons, rain lasts an hour and comes in the afternoon. People underestimate the sun, not the heat: at 1,495 metres you burn under cloud.
Checked 1 September 2026
Medellín is sold as the city of eternal spring. It is a nice line, flats are marketed with it, and it is about half true.
The true half: there are two seasons here instead of four, and the difference between January and July is smaller than the difference between nine in the morning and two in the afternoon. The untrue half is the picture the phrase paints: a pleasant twenty-two degrees, just right, all the time.
What it is actually like
Medellín sits at 1,495 metres, high enough not to be tropically humid and low enough to be hot at midday. The average hovers around twenty-two degrees, but the average is useless here: you get three kinds of weather in one day.
- Before nine it is fresh, fifteen to eighteen degrees, and locals wear jackets. So will you.
- Midday to three the sun is overhead and a street without trees is unbearable. Shade is five degrees away from the pavement.
- Early evening the wind comes down off the mountains and it is the best part of the day.
- At night you sleep comfortably without air conditioning, unless you live in a glass tower that soaked up heat all day.
But 2026 is different, and you can feel it
Anyone here right now does not experience eternal spring but heat from morning to night. They are not imagining it. Medellín broke its historical maximum this year: 33.8 degrees at the Olaya Herrera airport station, above the 2019 record. Records fell around the valley too, over 34 degrees in Bello.
The meteorological institute IDEAM flagged September as a month of higher temperatures and less rain, with falling river levels and a raised fire risk. El Niño is expected to peak between November 2026 and January 2027.
In practice that means advice like "bring a jumper, evenings are cool" holds less than usual this year, and that rain is a relief people wait for.
Two seasons, not four
Colombia has no spring or autumn; it has a rainy season and a dry season, and in Medellín they look like this:
- December to February: dry, the clearest skies, the strongest sun. The most popular and most expensive season.
- March to May: the first rains. Green, afternoon downpours, pleasant temperatures.
- June to August: a shorter dry spell, the veranillo. Windy.
- September to November: the second and stronger rainy season. In a normal year the wettest; this year forecast to be drier than it should be.
Rain does not last all day. It arrives in the afternoon, drops as much in an hour as a week does back home, and then the sun comes out. Planning your day around the rain is wasted effort; carrying a rain jacket is not.
What people underestimate
The sun, not the temperature. At fifteen hundred metres the ultraviolet is far stronger than in Europe and you can burn at twenty-two degrees under cloud. Sunscreen here is a daily item, not a beach item.
The gap between shade and sun. Five to eight degrees. That is why people walk on the shaded side of the street and why every park bench has a tree over it.
The slope. A hill you walk up easily at ten in the morning is a workout at two in the afternoon. Anyone choosing a flat should ask about that before asking about the view.
Nights in the mountains. Santa Elena, Arví, Jardín and Guatapé all sit higher and drop to ten or fifteen degrees after dark. Set off on a day trip in a t-shirt and you will be cold.
What to pack
For a month or for a year the list is nearly the same:
- T-shirts and one light hoodie. The hoodie is not for winter, it is for mornings and mountains.
- A light waterproof jacket, ideally one that folds into a bag. Umbrellas are useless here because the rain comes sideways.
- Shoes that survive water, and a second pair that dries fast. Pavements turn into streams in a downpour.
- High factor sunscreen and a cap. You can buy both here, they just cost more.
- Repellent if you plan trips lower than Medellín.
- One pair of long trousers and a shirt. For an office, a restaurant and the mountains.
- What not to bring: winter clothes, thick jumpers, wellingtons, two full sets "for any weather". Eternal spring it may not be, but winter it certainly is not.
When to come
December to February for a first visit, if you want guaranteed sun and do not mind higher prices and crowds.
April or October for a cheaper, greener trip. It rains in the afternoon, mornings are lovely, and accommodation is noticeably cheaper.
For moving it makes no difference. The gap between seasons here is smaller than the gap between neighbourhoods: Poblado runs two degrees cooler than the river below, and Santa Elena up the hill eight.
If you take one sentence from this: dress for three kinds of weather a day, and wear sunscreen even under cloud. The rest is detail.
What I wrote about it
September
2026
17 entries
10 September · Article
Driving in Medellín: the day of the week your car stays home
The last digit of your number plate keeps the car off the streets one day a week, from five in the morning to eight in the evening, across the whole valley. Plus the licence that expires after six months, a fine over six hundred thousand pesos, and road death figures that make me uneasy.
10 September · Article · La Candelaria, Medellín
No water after eight in the evening. What is going on in Medellín
Three hundred thousand people in six communes have had water every other day since late August. The city broke its temperature records in May, Ideam expects a strong El Niño into March, and the grid operator warns that power may not stretch through December. What the rule says, why it landed on the hillsides, and what it means for a trip.
10 September · Article · La Casa del Alimento, Medellín
A lunch where the meat dries on a washing line
A Colombian lunch is not one dish, it is a whole set for one price. Two mains, two desserts, two coffees and a lemonade came to 146,000 pesos. And in that restaurant's yard, beef hangs drying.
10 September · Article · Conquistadores, Medellín
The bin men of Medellín
A garbage truck with a slogan saying this city is a little silver cup. Who runs it, where the waste goes, why the landfill has eight years left, and how the people who open bags on the street come to be paid out of the water bill.
10 September · Article · Comuna 8, Villa Hermosa, Medellín
Villa Hermosa after dark
A house with almost no windows, hot rice pudding with cheese, and a slope full of lights right up to the ridge. And the only thing that made me uneasy was not what someone who has read about comuna 8 online would expect.
8 September · Article · El Poblado, Medellín
El Poblado after dark
The district where Medellín was founded in 1616 and where almost everybody who flies into the city now sleeps. Provenza with lights in the trees, the singer Karol G's restaurant, a road sign saying tourist zone, and a bill that sums it all up.
8 September · Note · La Candelaria, Medellín
At a junction on Carrera 55, Spider-Man stands at a red light selling…
At a junction on Carrera 55, Spider-Man stands at a red light selling sweets between the cars. A motorbike rider behind him, a water stall beside him.
8 September · Note · Café Mattelsa, Medellín
Café Mattelsa, two hours, one coffee and a kombucha. A Czech standard…
Café Mattelsa, two hours, one coffee and a kombucha. A Czech standard for electrical installations on the screen, a palm tree outside the window, people with laptops all around, and nobody making a…
7 September · Note
A pillion passenger on a motorbike carrying a large wheeled suitcase…
A pillion passenger on a motorbike carrying a large wheeled suitcase. One arm clamped around it, the other around the rider, knees against the tank, riding in traffic between the cars.
6 September · Article · Comuna 8, Villa Hermosa, Medellín
Up by cable car, down for an arepa
A tram on rubber tyres takes you from the centre to the edge of the city, and a cable car lifts you from there over the roofs of comuna 8. Back down there was an arepa festival, parakeets in a tree, a café in the house by the church, and a concert hall underground.
6 September · Article · La Candelaria, Medellín
El centro: the day I finally saw the city
Every second person told me not to go into the centre of Medellín. I went by metro, cleaner than the one at home, and found a palace with a chequerboard facade, twenty three Botero sculptures, a cathedral made of a million bricks, and a market that has run since the seventies.
5 September · Note
The botanical garden was closed. Not for a holiday or repairs: they…
The botanical garden was closed. Not for a holiday or repairs: they are building the Fiesta del Libro y la Cultura inside it, the city's book festival, in its twentieth year and running from 11 to 20…
4 September · Article · Comuna 8, Villa Hermosa, Medellín
Villa Hermosa: lunch, a church and a market
Comuna 8 up close, not from the cable car. A home cooked bandeja paisa with chicharrón, the brick church of La Sagrada Familia, stalls on the pavement, and traffic that runs on eye contact. On the way back, a stop among the villas of Prado.
3 September · Article · El Poblado, Medellín
A university as a park and a cinema in a mall
The EAFIT campus, which you can simply walk into, with mango trees, water along brick walls and birds in the middle of the city. And in the evening, the oldest mall in El Poblado, the first in Colombia to have its own cinema.
3 September · Article · El Poblado, Medellín
A dentist with a view
A tower full of consulting rooms in El Poblado, a restaurant on the ground floor, and a dentist's chair a metre from a glass wall with the whole Medellín valley behind it. What private care in Colombia looks like to a patient who arrived a month ago.
2 September · Note · Laureles, Medellín
2 September · Article · Laureles, Medellín
Laureles: a neighbourhood drawn in circles
A garden city from 1940 with circular streets, fig trees across the whole road, and cafés you can work from. The neighbourhood Medellín recommends to itself, and the one Time Out called the best in the world.
August
2026
1 entry
31 August · Article · Conquistadores, Medellín
Where I live: Conquistadores
A neighbourhood between the river and Laureles that nobody writes about. Dogs on every corner and clean pavements, greenery that is not an accident, a bridge to the Barefoot Park, and seventies buildings among the palms.
Frequently asked
Is Medellín really the city of eternal spring?
Half true. There are two seasons instead of four, and January differs from July less than nine in the morning differs from two in the afternoon. The twenty-two degree average says nothing: it is fifteen at dawn and over thirty at midday.
Why is Medellín so hot in 2026?
Because it is genuinely a record year. The Olaya Herrera airport station recorded 33.8 degrees, a new all-time high above the 2019 record, and records fell around the valley too. IDEAM also flagged September for higher temperatures and less rain, with El Niño peaking between November 2026 and January 2027.
When is the rainy season?
Twice a year: March to May, and then September to November, which is usually the stronger one. December to February is dry with the strongest sun, June to August a shorter dry spell called the veranillo. Rain does not last all day though: it comes in the afternoon and is over within the hour.
What should I wear and pack?
T-shirts, one light hoodie for mornings and mountains, a light waterproof jacket, and shoes that survive water. Umbrellas are useless because the rain comes sideways. Leave winter clothes and thick jumpers at home.
Do I really need sunscreen here?
Yes, daily. At fifteen hundred metres the ultraviolet is far stronger than in Europe and you can burn at twenty-two degrees under cloud. Shade and sun differ by five to eight degrees, which is why people walk on the shaded side of the street.
Questions and answers
What do you want to ask?
Ask anything about this topic. I answer, and the answer stays here so the next person who wonders the same finds it.