Weather in Évora in January

A good month. January works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs sit at 14.2 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Évora's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 41 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one. Worth keeping in perspective: January is the weakest month of Évora's year and it is still a perfectly good one. The downside here is small.

Rain on 9 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.2 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 3 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 20.7 °C and the coldest night fell to -5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 26 mm — roughly 44% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 0 mm in the driest year against 123 mm in the wettest, around an average of 59 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 8.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 85%, which at 14.2 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 14.7 °C in December, 14.2 here, 15.4 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Évora's year — 9.7 hours of daylight against 14.8 at midsummer, gaining 0.7 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 — 30.1 °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 Évora versus nearby

If Évora is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Lisbon is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Leiria is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain.

So: January is a compromise. May is 25 points better and is what Évora 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 Évora

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