Weather in Lima in January

Prime time. January is about as good as Lima gets. Highs average 30.1 °C, lows 23.4 °C, and rain falls on 0 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

Lima barely has seasons. January scores 86 out of 100 against a best of 94 in July — a gap small enough that the month you choose matters far less here than the week you choose.

Rain is not a factor worth planning around this month. Pack for 30.1 °C days and 23.4 °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: 17 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 33.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 21.3 °C.

January is dependably dry, and that reliability is the point: across the twenty years measured, the wettest January on record still only managed 14 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 1 mm. Rain simply is not the variable that decides this trip — heat, crowds and cost are.

Wind is light at 9.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 75%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.2 °C in December, 30.1 here, 30.7 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

Lima sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.8 hours in January, against a range of just 1.4 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 22 °C in January — comfortable for a proper swim. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

January in Lima versus nearby

If Lima is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Trujillo is the weaker option in January — 6.1 °C warmer, 7 days more rain. Cusco is the weaker option in January — 13.2 °C cooler, 21 days more rain.

So: January works, with July the better month by 8 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Lima

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