Weather in Chefchaouen in January

Shoulder season. January is shoulder season in Chefchaouen — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 14.3 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Chefchaouen's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 39 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 10 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.3 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 22.3 °C and the coldest night fell to -3.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 61 mm — roughly 60% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 4 mm in the driest year against 315 mm in the wettest, around an average of 101 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 4.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 82%, which at 14.3 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

This is a turning point in the year — December and February sit on opposite sides of it, so the month contains the change rather than following it.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Chefchaouen's year — 10 hours of daylight against 14.5 at midsummer, gaining 0.6 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 31.7 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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 Chefchaouen versus nearby

If Chefchaouen is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Tangier is a better bet in January — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Fes is a better bet in January — 3.1 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: January is a compromise. May is 27 points better and is what Chefchaouen is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Chefchaouen

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