Boracay in May: Weather, Sea Conditions and What Is On

There is no PAGASA station on Boracay. Two datasets stand in for one, and they are not the same kind of number. The rainfall in the first column is the PAGASA climatological normal for Roxas City, Capiz, the nearest listed station, which is on a different coast of Panay¹. The second column is derived from NASA POWER’s 2001-2020 climatology, a reanalysis model evaluated at the island’s coordinates, multiplied out from a daily rate to a monthly total². The temperatures are from the same model. The sea-surface figures are monthly means of hourly Open-Meteo model values for 2015-2024³.

Sources:¹ for the gauge column,² for rainfall and temperature in the model,³ for sea temperature.

Both rainfall columns at least double from April to May and rise again by June, so the shape agrees even where the size does not. Mean temperature in the model is 29.0 C, the highest of the year, and relative humidity is 78% against 77% in April and 82% in June². PAGASA’s national figures point the same way: May is the warmest month at a mean of 28.3 C, and the agency calls March to May the time when temperature and humidity reach their maximum⁴. The PAGASA normals page describes the values as 30-year averages but does not name the years or label the rainfall unit; the figures behave as millimetres of monthly rainfall¹.

Sources disagree For May, the model puts rainfall at Boracay at 225 mm and the Roxas City gauge at 144.7 mm, about 1.6 times as much¹². The model is a smoothed grid-cell estimate and Roxas City is across Panay, so neither is a measurement on the island. Use them for the season’s direction, not for a forecast of your week.

Boracay has two monsoons. Amihan is the northeast monsoon; Habagat is the southwest monsoon. PAGASA divides the year into a dry season from December to May and a rainy season from June to November⁴, so May belongs to Amihan’s side of the calendar. The 2025 Habagat began on 30 May according to GMA News⁵, which in a year like that leaves the southwest wind only the last days of the month. No source used here gives an end date for Amihan, so this page does not give one.

A University of the Philippines study models the island as oriented northwest to southeast. White Beach faces the southwesterly winds directly and Bulabog faces the northeasterly ones, which puts higher wind and wave setup on White Beach in southwest conditions and lower at Bulabog⁶. That is the coast to watch once the Habagat sets in.

Boats between Caticlan and Boracay have been limited at Public Storm Warning Signal No. 1¹³ and stopped at Signal No. 2⁷⁸ in the cases found; those storms fell in November and December. The detail is on typhoons and cancelled boats. Which port is used in which season is on the ports page; the sources behind this page do not give a port for May.

LaBoracay was the party weekend around 1 May. Love Boracay replaced it after the 2018 closure: Rappler reported that the first edition, in 2019, ran from 26 April to 1 May as an environmental campaign⁹, and that the 2024 programme, centred on watersports such as an international dragon boat competition, ran until 1 May¹⁴. A Globe release dated 4 May 2026 describes a “Love Boracay 2026” festival peaking around Labor Day, and lists its own free e-trike rides on the island on 1 to 3 May¹⁵. No programme dates for 2026 or 2027 are given in the sources used here. Labor Day in 2027 is Saturday 1 May under Proclamation No. 1427, signed on 8 September 2026¹⁰¹¹. The wider list of busy dates is in Boracay peak dates.

The arrivals reports give no figure for May alone. For scale, the Department of Tourism secretary said on 18 April 2022 that LaBoracay in 2019 reached 14,000 arrivals a day, against what she called a recommended daily threshold of 19,215; Holy Week 2022 brought 21,252 on 14 April and 22,519 on 15 April¹². Those are the only daily figures for the Labor Day period in the sources used.

If your dates include 1 May, treat them as a peak date and book rooms and boat transfers first; the 2019 figure above is the reported scale of that weekend¹². For the last week of the month, leave a spare day around any flight home, since the Habagat can start then⁵. Entry steps at the jetty port are in Boracay entry requirements.