[Note: The following email was sent by David Eidell to alert readers that may be planning RV travels in Mexico during the current season...]
Hi Tom,
Hopefully (It is getting on in the season) this note may catch some folks in time at home so that perhaps they can better prepare for their upcoming trip weather wise.
In a word, January has been one of the wettest and chilliest in several decades. Hold your horses, wet and chilly doesn't mean floods and icebergs but it does mean some uncommon preparations can make a trip more enjoyable. To be clear about it most of the interior tourist destination still offer daytime highs in the seventies and low eighties (with an occasional high sixties) but anywhere but on the coast night time lows can depending on elevation drop to the low fifties all the way down into the thirties. Just an hour ago here on the coast of Michoacan where six o'clock PM in January would see temps in the mid to upper mid seventies. It rained, and it rained hard for an hour or two and then the temp dropped to seventy degrees. Winter rains are uncommon here.
I would pack thermal underwear and a wool sweater along with a coat for visiting interior colonial cities. Wool is warmer under clammy cool conditions, thermal underwear offers another layer of comfort against chill and a coat is useful for very early morning reveries, and late evening dining and cocktails. Beach-only destinees should pack long pants and a flannel shirt for moderately cool evenings and a good heavy sweater for northern locations on both coasts. It has been cool and rainy in Tulum and Cancun. Bring a rain suit. There are fewer less pleasant chores than to have to spend time out of doors on a "can't wait" chore, soaked in a chilly rain shower.
If I were driving a big enough rig and were planning on a goodly stay visiting interior colonial cities I would consider stowing an extra pair of 20 lb portable LPG bottles, hoses and adapters to allow umbilical connection if a heater must be used in the evening. Most RV parks have poor electrical service and one of those 1,500 watt space heaters may end up giving out 400 watts of heat. But an electric blanket would be heaven.
Few destinations (see below) have hard freezes where one has to worry about rig plumbing, but I would keep an eye on weather forecasts. If another Canadian blast descends southward I would consider uprooting and heading to the beach.
Far and away Mexico's Pacific coast has warmer and drier weather than the Gulf of Mexico and Yucatan. Fly in tourists are loudly grumbling that they didn't plan to go to Cancun to bask in sixty degree overcast weather, wind and rain.
Visitors overnighting at Creel Chihuahua (gateway to the Copper Canyon) and the Mariposa butterfly reserve near Zitacuaro Michoacan should be prepared for cold nights and mornings. A degree of cold that means umbilical water connections may freeze, and rig heaters may require a strong diet of LPG.
But Oh! The Days Are Glorious! Shorts, tee shirts, here, and actually wanting to seek shade during the afternoon!
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Saludos de Michoacan Mexico,
David