Weather in Marrakesh in January

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, January is the one. Highs average 20.3 °C, lows 7.6 °C, and rain falls on 5 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

January is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is December, and the month at the other end of the year is August.

Rain falls on only 5 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average January reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 28.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 37 mm — roughly 103% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. January rainfall has ranged from 0 mm to 115 mm across the twenty years measured — a 115 mm spread around an average of 36 mm. The average is real but almost no individual January looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 6.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 58%.

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 Marrakesh's year — 10.3 hours of daylight against 14.2 at midsummer, gaining 0.5 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 — 33.1 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

January in Marrakesh versus nearby

If Marrakesh is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Agadir is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.3 °C warmer, 2 days less rain. Casablanca is the weaker option in January — 2 °C cooler, 3 days more rain.

So: January is the answer for Marrakesh. If it is booked out or priced out, December is the next best thing at 0 points behind, and August is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Marrakesh

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