Weather in Rio de Janeiro in February

Shoulder season. February 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.

February ranks 9 of 12 in Rio de Janeiro: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 15 days, 5 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 82% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 10 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 5.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 34.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 21.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 82 mm — roughly 54% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 29 mm in the driest year against 418 mm in the wettest, around an average of 153 mm. Roughly two Februarys 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 82%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How February sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29 °C in January, 29.2 here, 28.5 in March. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 5 days fewer than January had.

Daylight in February

February is at or near the longest days of Rio de Janeiro's year: 12.9 hours of daylight, losing 0.6 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 26.3 °C in February — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

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.

February in Rio de Janeiro versus nearby

If Rio de Janeiro is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Belo Horizonte is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.2 °C cooler, 1 day more rain. São Paulo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days more rain.

So: February is a compromise. July is 32 points better and is what Rio de Janeiro 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 Rio de Janeiro

See all twelve months in Rio de Janeiro, or where else to go in February.