Geography, Weather, & Wildlife of Nicaragua
Geography
Conception Volcano
Nicaragua sits in the middle of Central America. The country
borders Honduras in the north and in the south borders
Costa Rica. Nicaragua stretches from the Pacific Ocean
in the west to the Caribbean Sea in the east.
Despite Nicaragua's small size and its borders with
both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, the country is quite elevated and mountainous.
These mountains tend to rise straight out of the ocean, but on the Caribbean Sea
side, there is a plain, although it is quite forested. The mountains peak near the
Pacific Ocean coast, where the large Lake Nicaragua stands; from this lake and the
mountains, a number of rivers run east into the Caribbean Sea.
Weather
Nicaragua's temperatures and weather is very dependent
on elevation and season. The country has two seasons, wet season from about May
to November and dry season from about December to April. However, even with these
two seasons, rainfall varies greatly as the Caribbean Sea coast tends to get rain
year round and will annually get three to five times more rain than the Pacific
Coast. The second major influence on the weather in Nicaragua is elevation. At sea
level the days and nights are much hotter with temperatures rarely dipping below
70° F (21° C) at night and daily highs jumping another 10-20° F (6-11° C). As the
elevation rises, temperatures drop, but no place ever reaches the freezing point,
with the mountains only getting down to about 60° F (15° C) at night. There is a
chance for hurricanes from about June to November, but most Caribbean Sea hurricanes
miss them to the north.