Puerto de Mogán Weather: Live Forecast and What Each Month Is Really Like

Month by month on the coast

Climate normals for 1991-2020, taken at Puerto de Mogán’s own coordinates:

What the averages hide is how little varies from one day to the next. A January afternoon in Puerto de Mogán is very likely to be between 19 and 22 degrees. It is not a place where you refresh the forecast anxiously; you pack for one kind of weather and that is what you get.

How it compares to other winter-sun destinations

This is the comparison that actually matters if you are choosing where to go in January. Real December-to-February averages from the last ten years of records:

Two things stand out. The Canaries are not marginally warmer than mainland southern Europe in winter, they are four degrees warmer. the difference between eating outside and not. And Madeira and Cyprus, both heavily marketed for winter sun, average nine to eleven wet days a month at that time of year, four times Mogán’s figure.

Tenerife’s south coast is the genuine like-for-like rival, and on weather alone there is nothing to choose between them. Decide on the resort instead.

Sea temperature

The figure that decides whether a winter beach holiday actually works, and the one most forecast sites leave out entirely.

The Atlantic here is cooler than the Mediterranean in summer and considerably warmer in winter. From June to November the water is genuinely pleasant. From December to May it is bracing for the first thirty seconds and fine afterwards, and there are swimmers every single day of the year.

Playa de Mogán is protected by the harbour wall, which makes it one of the stillest stretches of water on the south coast. With no swell and no current, it feels warmer than the thermometer suggests.

How much does it rain?

Very little. July averages a tenth of a rainy day per month across thirty years of records, which is another way of saying it does not rain in July.

The wetter months run from November to March, and even then that means three to four days in the month with a millimetre or more. Rain here arrives as a short heavy burst rather than a grey drizzle that settles in. If it rains during your week, it will most likely rain for an hour.

Wind and the microclimates along this coast

The trade winds blow across the island for most of the year, strongest between May and September. The south coast is sheltered from them, but not evenly: rocky headlands separate the resorts and act as screens, so beaches ten minutes apart genuinely differ.

The rule that holds: the more enclosed the bay, the less you feel the wind and the warmer the water feels. The daily pattern is the same everywhere, still mornings, a breeze that builds through the afternoon, and calm again at sunset. If wind bothers you, go to the beach in the morning.

Inland is a different forecast

Everything above describes the coast. Drive twenty minutes up the ravine to the village of Mogán and the numbers shift measurably: August averages a high of 28,8° there against 27,7° on the coast, and January averages a low of 14,5° against 15,8°.

That is the standard pattern for anywhere out of reach of the sea’s moderating effect, hotter by day, colder by night. It matters if you plan to walk the barranco in summer, because the coastal forecast will understate what you are walking into by more than a degree, on a path with no shade.

When it fills up, and when it does not

The busy calendar here runs the opposite way to the Mediterranean, and understanding that affects your bill more than anything else on this page.

Cross that against the climate table and the honest recommendation falls out on its own: May and October are the two months where good weather, warm water, thin crowds and sensible prices all coincide. If your dates are flexible, those are the ones to aim for.

A detail worth knowing if you are booking a winter break: January is simultaneously the coolest month and one of the busiest. Demand here is driven by how cold it is where the visitors come from, not by how warm it is on the island.

Storms, and whether you need to worry

A question that comes up because of the name: the Canary Islands are not in the Atlantic hurricane belt, and tropical storms reaching the archipelago are rare enough to make the news when they happen.

What does occur, mostly between October and March, is the occasional Atlantic low bringing a day or two of genuine rain and a stronger swell. Beaches on the exposed western coast can close their swimming flags for a day. Puerto de Mogán, behind its harbour wall, is among the last places on the coast affected.

The other phenomenon worth naming is the tiempo sur: a southerly flow that brings hot, dry air off Africa. It is the same setup that carries the calima, and it can push a February afternoon into the high twenties. Uncomfortable if you came for mild weather, glorious if you came for a beach.

What a typical day looks like

When to come, depending on what you want

If we had to name one month it would be October: the sea at 23,8°, the air still in the mid-twenties, summer crowds gone and winter ones not yet arrived. The trade-off is that October is one of the months where rain is at all possible, though “possible” still means about three days.

For everything that is not weather, where to stay, where to eat, what time to visit, we have a full guide to Puerto de Mogán.

Daylight hours, the underrated advantage

Because the island sits so far south, winter days stay long. This is what visitors notice most on arrival and almost nobody checks before booking:

The December row is the one that matters. The sun never sets before seven o’clock at any point in the year, and midwinter still gives ten and a half hours of daylight. London in December manages under eight, with sunset before four. That extra afternoon is a large part of why a winter week here feels like a real holiday.

One practical note: the Canaries keep the same time as the UK, so there is no adjustment on arrival.

Sun strength, all year round

The part northern European visitors consistently underestimate. At 27° north the sun is strong enough that in July and August the UV index regularly reaches 10 or 11, the “extreme” band.

More surprisingly, it holds at 5 to 6 through December and January, enough to burn pale skin in under an hour. The Atlantic breeze disguises it completely, and every winter the resorts fill with people who did not expect to burn in January.

The rule locals follow: shade between one and four whatever the month, and sun cream on any day you are outside for more than half an hour. On the barranco, where there is no natural shade at all, add a hat and water.

What to pack

In short

Mogán has some of the most dependable weather anywhere in Europe: 7,3 degrees of annual range on the coast, a sea that never drops below 20°, and rain that is a rarity outside a handful of winter days. It beats Madeira, Málaga, Cyprus and Marrakech on winter warmth and matches south Tenerife.

Book the month that suits your budget and your tolerance for crowds rather than the forecast. Pack a jumper for the evenings if you are coming between November and March, and if your plans include walking inland, check the village forecast rather than the coastal one, they are not the same place.