Weather in May

[photochick]

I know nothing is fool proof but does one side of the island get more rain in May than the other? We were in Negril in May and it only really rained 1 day. We had two small 15 min showers on another day but it was gone in a flash and the sun came out. We talked with a couple at the airport that had been in Ocho Rios that week and they said it rained every day for long periods of time. We are having a hard time deciding between CSA and CTI but if it's more likely rain all week at CTI it will make our decision a lot easier. Is the weather better in April? We may be able to bump our vacation up a month if it will make a big difference.

[WandA]

May IS a rainy month there. Of course there's no way to predict the weather 10 months away.
BUT in answer to your question about Ochi Vs Negril,
at other times of the year, we have been in Ochi and had days of rain while it was not raining at all in Negril.

[Chris]

photochick -

We were at SweptAway in May, probably in the same time frame. We also heard the reports of Ochi getting HAMMERED with tons of rain that week, while Negril was getting some occassional (and refreshing) showers.

Leading up to May, Negril was EXTREMELY dry... leading to, at one point, an underground peat fire in the nearby marsh known as the Great Morass. This fire lasted for a few weeks, causing a lot of acrid smoke and some unhappy campers at the resorts (was gone by the week we were there).

In our Jamaican experiences (all in the Negril area) since 1993, we have never had a day washed out... I'm told we're very fortunate. We been to the Negril in the months of January, February, May, June, July, and December. Based on this experience, the weather is a crapshoot... not unlike all but a few places on earth.