Palermo climate by month
What the weather is like
Palermo has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csa): dry, sunny summers and mild, wetter winters.
The warmest month is August, when afternoons average 31° and nights 22°. January is the coolest month, with highs of 15° and lows of 8°. The difference between the warmest and the coolest month is about 16°.
About 697 mm of precipitation falls in an average year. January is the wettest month (89 mm, 13 wet days) and July the driest (5 mm, 2 wet days). Cloud cover ranges from 4% in July to 33% in January.
The sea reaches about 27° in August. Sea temperatures lag the air by a month or two, so late summer is usually warmer for swimming than early summer.
Compared with Rome, the capital, Palermo is 1.2° cooler on a August afternoon and receives less precipitation over the year.
Year in figures
- Hottest afternoons
- 31° · August
- Coldest nights
- 7° · February
- Wettest month
- January
- Driest month
- July
- Clearest skies
- July · 4% cloud
- Warmest sea
- 27° · August
- Longest day
- 14 h 48 min
- Shortest day
- 9 h 32 min
Twelve months at a glance
Temperature and precipitation
Daily high/low range bars, monthly precipitation columns, sea temperature lineTemperature curve
Average high, low and seaDaylight
Hours between sunrise and sunset on the 15th of each monthClimate normals month by month
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 15° | 15° | 17° | 20° | 24° | 28° | 31° | 31° | 28° | 25° | 20° | 16° |
| Average low | 8° | 7° | 9° | 11° | 15° | 18° | 21° | 22° | 20° | 16° | 13° | 9° |
| Precipitation | 89 mm | 68 mm | 65 mm | 56 mm | 27 mm | 12 mm | 5 mm | 17 mm | 70 mm | 89 mm | 100 mm | 99 mm |
| Wet days (≥1 mm) | 12.7 | 11.2 | 9.9 | 7.6 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 1.9 | 3.5 | 9.4 | 10.4 | 12.2 | 12.6 |
| Cloud cover | 33% | 30% | 27% | 27% | 22% | 12% | 4% | 6% | 17% | 27% | 31% | 33% |
| Sea temperature | 15° | 14° | 15° | 16° | 19° | 22° | 26° | 27° | 25° | 23° | 20° | 17° |
| Daylight | 9h 48 | 10h 47 | 11h 55 | 13h 10 | 14h 13 | 14h 48 | 14h 34 | 13h 40 | 12h 28 | 11h 15 | 10h 08 | 9h 32 |
| Saharan dust haze | – | – | ● | ●● | ●● | ●● | ● | ● | ● | ● | – | – |
| Month score | 52 | 57 | 72 | 82 | 89 | 81 | 72 | 65 | 64 | 75 | 71 | 60 |
Dust haze, monthly average 2015–2024: ● occasional, ●● frequent, ●●● very frequent