Weather in Arequipa in January

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, January is the one. Highs average 25.1 °C, lows 12.7 °C, and rain falls on 9 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

Arequipa barely has seasons. January scores 86 out of 100 against a best of 100 in May — a gap small enough that the month you choose matters far less here than the week you choose. Worth keeping in perspective: January is the weakest month of Arequipa's year and it is still a perfectly good one. The downside here is small.

Rain on 9 days, 0 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average January reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 30.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 7.8 °C.

January is moderately variable: 5 mm in the driest year against 92 mm in the wettest, around an average of 35 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 64%.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 25.7 °C in December, 25.1 here, 24.7 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

Arequipa sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 13 hours in January, against a range of just 1.9 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 17.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 2397 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

January in Arequipa versus nearby

If Arequipa is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Arica is the weaker option in January — 8.7 °C warmer, 8 days less rain. Cusco is the weaker option in January — 8.2 °C cooler, 12 days more rain.

So: January works, with May the better month by 14 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Arequipa

See all twelve months in Arequipa, or where else to go in January.