Weather in Granada in January

Shoulder season. January is shoulder season in Granada — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 12.9 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Granada's year. May is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 29 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 8 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 12.9 °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 20.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -4.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 37 mm — roughly 93% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 1 mm in the driest year against 130 mm in the wettest, around an average of 40 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 9.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 75%, which at 12.9 °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: 13.7 °C in December, 12.9 here, 13.7 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Granada's year — 9.9 hours of daylight against 14.7 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 — 27.7 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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.

January in Granada versus nearby

If Granada is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Málaga is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.8 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Sevilla is a better bet in January — 3.4 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: January is a compromise. May is 29 points better and is what Granada 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 Granada

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