Summer.. does it always rain in the afternoon?

[justme0729]

We would like to have some pool time at our resort and I'm thinking about whether we want to do parks in the morning or at night or both. We would do both if we can get some pool time in during the afternoon from say 1:00-5:00pm. Is it very likely to rain during this time? We will be going in early June (June 4-10th)

 

[Ladyfish77]

No. I was there at the end of May for a week. It rained twice. I was there for 5 days at the end of July, it rained twice. Both times in July it wasn't that hard for that long. In May there was a deluge for over an hour, but we headed for the park toward the end of it and the place was fairly empty! Don't let the rain slow you down!

(I've had three trips in the last year and only used the raincoats one day--that My deluge day).

 

[msmama]

Does it rain everyday in the summer? Yes, but...

It pretty much rains somewhere in Orlando every summer afternoon. But the showers are very spotty and when it does rain, often lasts 20 minutes (or less). So while the weather will say there is a 100% chance of rain, it is equally as likely that you will never see it.

 

[85glht]

Does it rain everyday in the summer? Yes, but...

It pretty much rains somewhere in Orlando every summer afternoon. But the showers are very spotty and when it does rain, often lasts 20 minutes (or less). So while the weather will say there is a 100% chance of rain, it is equally as likely that you will never see it.

This^. Very true.

 

[FastPasser]

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[bluezy]

We would like to have some pool time at our resort and I'm thinking about whether we want to do parks in the morning or at night or both. We would do both if we can get some pool time in during the afternoon from say 1:00-5:00pm. Is it very likely to rain during this time? We will be going in early June (June 4-10th)

We've been to Disney in June many times -- always for 7 or 8 days. We usually have 2 or 3 days with a brief (less than an hour) afternoon shower. We've had 1 trip with absolutely no rain; one trip with a 4+ hour downpour one night starting at about 8:00; and our most recent trip (2016) we had 3 hours of rain one afternoon. We've had far more sunshine than rain during our trips in June.

As far as planning your days -- for the most part, unless there's significant rain in the forecast, there's no real way to plan around those pop-up showers. What works for us most days is to do rope drop (or near rope drop) and stay in the park until about 1:00-2:00. Then we go back to the resort to rest, swim, and or enjoy the a/c and head back to a park around 6:00 or 7:00. That keeps us out of the sun during the hottest part of the day.

 

[Jestocost]

While there's a possibility of rain most days during the summer, showers tend to be scattered and brief so it's unlikely that you will experience rain--or at least extended periods of rain--every day of any given stay.

And in fact, as long as there's no lightning or no high winds a rainy day can be be the best time to go to the parks as the weather keeps less hardy souls away. We had a few of our best days during a tropical storm.

 

[ChasingLeslie]

I was at Disney for eight days in July (and another five visiting family in Florida). It only rained one afternoon, on our AK park day.

 

[cwis]

FWIW, it rained almost all day today. I believe thunderstorms made it so that water parks closed at about 4pm. Pools at our resort (GF) closed between 1pm and 8pm, rain and thunderstorms being quite uninterrupted during that time.

(I know OP enquired about June, however since the thread title mentionned summer, this might be helpful to other readers)

 

[Keyser]

We went in early July and never had to miss afternoon pool time. I think it maybe rained 2 of 8 days when we were there (though our arrival day it evidently rained very heavily shortly before we arrived - enough to clear out the Universal park we were visiting!). Our night at Animal Kingdom, we saw several rain clouds and then quite a bit of distant lightning, but they never even acted like it was something to worry about, and it never actually rained in AK.

 

[bryanb]

I've had experiences where on a bright and sunny day, I'd walk into an indoor attraction, and then 15 minutes later leave to find that it's still sunny, but the entire ground is completely soaked, and all the hapless guests dripping wet. But it's like something bizarre happened in some time warp.

 

[FastPasser]

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[Aliceacc]

We were there for a week in July.

It rained maybe 2 of our 7 afternoons, for less than an hour. We didn't need any of the ponchos we brought.

Normally we would have gotten plenty of pool time, though this year we tended to nap more than swim.

 

[Klayfish]

It's Florida in the summer. Random stray pop up storms are part of life. You won't get rained on every day...probably. But there's a chance of storms most of the time. We typically go in June, usually for 14-17 day trips. We've had trips where we didn't get caught in the rain during midday once. We've had trips where it rained probably 8 or 9 of the 14 days during midday. It can vary from a 10 minute downpour where the sun comes right back out to a 4 hour rain event. On our most recent trip, we had maybe 3 afternoons out of 17 where there was some kind of rain midday, but it was usually brief. Another thing about it is that it could be pouring in MK but be bright sunshine in Epcot. We've had times where it was both pouring and bright sunshine at the same time...seriously.

It's not scientific I suppose, but we have found a good gauge of if it's going to storm in the afternoon is to look at the skies in the morning. If big white (non-storm looking) billowing clouds build fairly early, say by 10am, there seems to be a much better chance of storms midday. If the sky is clear or just has light wispy clouds, no rain.

I'd say be prepared for it, but no need to alter plans in advance.

 

[kaytieeldr]

June isn't summer, despite the potential temperatures, so it's far less likely to rain every afternoon in early June than in August/September.

 

[ArwenMarie]

We went in June once and it rained every day. It will most likely rain, you just don't know when, so be prepared and be flexible with your schedule.

It's hard to plan pool time so you have to be flexible with that too. One trip, we had to finally set aside a morning to swim because we kept getting rained (I should say lightning-ed) out in the afternoons.

The one thing you want to do is make sure you get any must-dos done in the mornings. That is when you are most likely to have clear weather due to the daily weather dynamics.

Be more alert to lightning than rain, that is what is dangerous. If you hear thunder, get indoors. It's not called Lightning Alley for nothing!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My husband and I have gotten a laugh as pretty much every day on the DIS Daily Fix the weather report goes something like this (paraphrasing here): "And as usual there is a __% chance of rain at WDW and another beautiful day at DLR".

It's just like at home I feel like..a 70% of rain could mean not a drop at my house but a downpour a few miles away or a 20% of rain could mean a downpour at my house and not a drop a few miles away.

I would likely go expecting rain (to be on the safe side) but not let it get you down. You may get sunny skies the whole time or you have some good, but likely quick storms pass through or you may have a long storm system that sticks around longer than normal.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We hope it down pours for fifteen minutes. The place cools down and people scatter leaving lines to us!

 

[Leelo]

We had rain on our summers at Disney but like others, they are spotty showers and don't last very long.

 

[aretha30]

We just got back on the 12th and only had a few days with storms. There were storms in the area and around us but we weren't affected most days. There have been some summers that it has rained every day in the afternoon for 20-30 minutes and then moved on (that is typical FL weather).