Weather in Split in January

A hard month. January asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 10.5 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Split's year. June is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 36 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 11 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 10.5 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: the day barely swings — 4.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 16.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -6.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 42 mm — roughly 46% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 15 mm in the driest year against 177 mm in the wettest, around an average of 91 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 78%, which at 10.5 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 12 °C in December, 10.5 here, 11.2 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Split's year — 9.3 hours of daylight against 15.4 at midsummer, gaining 0.8 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 23.8 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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.

January in Split versus nearby

If Split is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Dubrovnik is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Slavonski Brod is the weaker option in January — 5.7 °C cooler, 1 day less rain.

So: January is a compromise. June is 36 points better and is what Split 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 Split

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