Weather in Cartagena in January

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, January is the one. Highs average 29.6 °C, lows 25.7 °C, and rain falls on 1 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

January is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is February, and the month at the other end of the year is August.

Rain falls on only 1 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Pack for 29.6 °C days and 25.7 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 10 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 3.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 32.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 24.2 °C.

January is dependably dry, and that reliability is the point: across the twenty years measured, the wettest January on record still only managed 13 mm, and the driest managed 0 mm. There is no meaningful variability to plan around, which makes this one of the few months anywhere that you can build a fixed outdoor itinerary against without a fallback. The wettest single day in twenty years of Januarys brought 3 mm. Rain simply is not the variable that decides this trip — heat, crowds and cost are.

Wind sits around 22.7 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 78%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.5 °C in December, 29.6 here, 30.3 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 6 days fewer than December had.

Daylight in January

Cartagena sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.6 hours in January, against a range of just 1.2 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.6 °C in January — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.3 °C in October and bottoms out at 27.1 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

January in Cartagena versus nearby

If Cartagena is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Barranquilla is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Medellín is the weaker option in January — 4.8 °C cooler, 19 days more rain.

So: January is the answer for Cartagena. If it is booked out or priced out, February is the next best thing at 3 points behind, and August is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Cartagena

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