Weather in Sharm el-Sheikh in May

A hard month. May is a hard month in Sharm el-Sheikh, and worth planning around. Daytime highs average 35.1 °C and the afternoon is not negotiable — outdoor plans move to early morning or evening.

May ranks 7 of 12 in Sharm el-Sheikh: past the worst of the year but short of January, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain is not a factor worth planning around this month. Pack for heat management rather than style: shade, water, and a schedule that gives up on the middle of the day.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 16 days clear 35 °C, so a serious heatwave is normal rather than notable. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 42.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 18.8 °C.

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

Wind is light at 12.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and the air is dry at 35% humidity, which makes the heat far more bearable than the same figure somewhere humid — and dehydrates you faster than you expect.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 3.9 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 2.9 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

May is at or near the longest days of Sharm el-Sheikh's year: 13.5 hours of daylight, gaining 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 25 °C in May — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. The sea peaks at 29.1 °C in August and bottoms out at 22.6 °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

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.

May in Sharm el-Sheikh versus nearby

If Sharm el-Sheikh is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Hurghada is a better bet in May — 3.8 °C cooler, the same number of rain days. Cairo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: May is a compromise. January is 52 points better and is what Sharm el-Sheikh 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 Sharm el-Sheikh

See all twelve months in Sharm el-Sheikh, or where else to go in May.