Satellite: Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 by EOX IT Services GmbH · CC BY 4.0 · Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016
Climate guideThirty-year normals for Calama
Calama climate by month
Cold desert · BWkBest May–Jul
Annual mean14°day and night
Seasonal swing6°warmest vs coolest
Precipitation30 mm9 wet days a year
22.46° S, 68.92° WElevation 2,275 mUTC−3 · Chile Summer Time
When to goCalama · weather score
Best timeMay–Jul
October: high / low23° / 6°
iSummary
What the weather is like
Calama has a cold desert climate (Köppen BWk): very little rain and intense sun.
The warmest month is December, when afternoons average 24° and nights 9°. July is the coolest month, with highs of 19° and lows of 2°. The difference between the warmest and the coolest month is about 6°, a small seasonal swing typical of places tempered by the sea.
About 30 mm of precipitation falls in an average year. February is the wettest month (9 mm, 3 wet days) and June the driest (3 mm, 0 wet days). Cloud cover ranges from 6% in September to 34% in January.
Compared with Santiago, the capital, Calama is 4.2° cooler on a December afternoon and receives less precipitation over the year.
Year in figures
- Hottest afternoons
- 24° · December
- Coldest nights
- 2° · July
- Wettest month
- February
- Driest month
- June
- Clearest skies
- September · 6% cloud
- Longest day
- 13 h 30 min
- Shortest day
- 10 h 46 min
iiCharts
Twelve months at a glance
Temperature and precipitation
Daily high/low range bars, monthly precipitation columnsTemperature curve
Average high, lowDaylight
Hours between sunrise and sunset on the 15th of each monthiiiData table
Climate normals month by month
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 23° | 23° | 23° | 22° | 21° | 19° | 19° | 21° | 22° | 23° | 24° | 24° |
| Average low | 10° | 10° | 9° | 7° | 4° | 3° | 2° | 4° | 5° | 6° | 7° | 9° |
| Precipitation | 6 mm | 9 mm | 5 mm | 1 mm | 3 mm | 3 mm | 2 mm | 0 mm | 0 mm | 0 mm | 0 mm | 1 mm |
| Wet days (≥1 mm) | 2.2 | 2.7 | 2.1 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.1 |
| Cloud cover | 34% | 29% | 21% | 12% | 10% | 11% | 9% | 9% | 6% | 10% | 14% | 24% |
| Daylight | 13h 21 | 12h 50 | 12h 14 | 11h 35 | 11h 03 | 10h 46 | 10h 53 | 11h 20 | 11h 57 | 12h 36 | 13h 11 | 13h 30 |
| Month score | 93 | 94 | 95 | 99 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 97 |
ivMonth by month
Calama in every month
January93
23° / 10°
6 mm · 2.2 wet days
February94
23° / 10°
9 mm · 2.7 wet days
March95
23° / 9°
5 mm · 2.1 wet days
April99
22° / 7°
1 mm · 0.3 wet days
May100
21° / 4°
3 mm · 0.2 wet days
June100
19° / 3°
3 mm · 0.1 wet days
July100
19° / 2°
2 mm · 0.2 wet days
August100
21° / 4°
0 mm · 0.1 wet days
September100
22° / 5°
0 mm · 0.1 wet days
October100
23° / 6°
0 mm · 0.1 wet days
November100
24° / 7°
0 mm · 0.2 wet days
December97
24° / 9°
1 mm · 1.1 wet day