Weather in Sedona in August

A hard month. August is a hard month in Sedona, and worth planning around. Highs average 33.5 °C, lows 18.3 °C, and rain falls on 14 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

August ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Sedona's year. April is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 55 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 14 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Pack for 33.5 °C days and 18.3 °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: 11 days clear 35 °C, so a serious heatwave is normal rather than notable; the day swings 15.2 °C from low to high, which means one bag has to cover both. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest August day reached 42.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 10.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 27 mm — roughly 40% of the month's rain in one day.

August is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest August on record still delivered 136 mm against 20 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 68 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 51%.

How August sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 34.8 °C in July, 33.5 here, 30.8 in September. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: September brings 7 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in August

13.5 hours of daylight, losing 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Sedona's extremes of 14.5 and 9.8 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 35.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1326 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly. Within August itself the daily swing is 15.2 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

August in Sedona versus nearby

If Sedona is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Phoenix is the weaker option in August — 7.3 °C warmer, 6 days less rain. Tucson is the weaker option in August — 3.1 °C warmer, 2 days more rain.

So: August is a compromise. April is 48 points better and is what Sedona 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 Sedona

See all twelve months in Sedona, or where else to go in August.