Weather in Recife in January

Shoulder season. January sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 15 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

January ranks 8 of 12 in Recife: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 15 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 31.1 °C days and 25 °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: 27 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 33.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 23.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 32 mm — roughly 38% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 22 mm in the driest year against 256 mm in the wettest, around an average of 85 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 72%.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.3 °C in December, 31.1 here, 31.3 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 6 days more than December had.

Daylight in January

Recife sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.5 hours in January, against a range of just 0.9 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.9 °C in January — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 28.8 °C in April and bottoms out at 26.4 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

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 Recife versus nearby

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

So: January works, with October the better month by 18 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Recife

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