Weather in Cusco in March

Shoulder season. March sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 19 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

March ranks 9 of 12 in Cusco: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 19 wet days but only 2 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Pack for 16.8 °C days and 6.7 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 21.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 3.8 °C.

March is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest March on record still delivered 165 mm against 39 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 96 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 5.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 85%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 16.8 °C in February, 16.8 here, 16.6 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: April brings 12 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in March

Cusco sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.2 hours in March, against a range of just 1.6 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: 13.5 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 3312 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

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

March in Cusco versus nearby

If Cusco is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Arequipa is a better bet in March — 8.5 °C warmer, 13 days less rain. Lima is a better bet in March — 14 °C warmer, 18 days less rain.

So: March is a compromise. August is 34 points better and is what Cusco 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 Cusco

See all twelve months in Cusco, or where else to go in March.