The sun-drenched Cape Verde has a subtropical dry climate. Though January is the coldest month of the year in Cape Verde, with an average temperature of 25 degrees Celsius it is great enjoyment. In January the sun shines for a good part of the day, the temperature is constant and there is generally no rain. Cape Verde is even one of the 20 driest countries in the world. Cape Verde consists of nine inhabited islands, namely Sal, Boa Vista, São Nicolau, São Vicente, Santo Antão, Santiago, Maio, Fogo and Brava. The ever-present and cooling trade winds on the archipelago ensure that it can be pleased in Cape Verde despite the high temperature.

What kind of weather can you expect in Cape Verde in January? Below you will find the averages of the most important meteorological variables for you. These are the average daytime maximum, the sea temperature and the days of rain, as the climate table gives them. The weather data for the month of January is based on historical weather data and does not provide an actual weather forecasting for Cape Verde.

In short

  • Temperatures 25.0°C
  • Dry and very sunny
  • Strong trade winds, great for watersports
  • Sea temperature 23°C
  • Rain is extremely rare

Temperature in January

The average daytime maximum in January is 25.0 degrees Celsius. Together with February that is the coolest point of the year, and cool here still means full beach weather. Nights are noticeably fresher, but never cold.

Maximum temperature in January - Cape Verde

Maximum temperature — day by day within the month

Rain in January

January sits in the middle of the dry season. The climate table records 0 days of rain for January on Sal: days with at least one millimetre of rainfall do not appear in the reference period.

Rain in January - Cape Verde

Rainfall — day by day within the month

Wind in January

January is among the windiest months of the year. The north-east trade wind blows most steadily then, which makes January high season for kitesurfers and windsurfers around Sal and Boa Vista. How hard it blows is not in the climate table, which carries no wind values.

The weather in Cape Verde in other months

Data accounting

Every figure on this page comes from the climate table on Cape Verde climate and weather: measuring station Sal, Amílcar Cabral airport (Espargos), reference period the 1991–2020 climate normal. A day of rain is a day with at least 1 millimetre of rainfall. Those values hold for Sal and for the flat eastern islands. The other islands have no measuring series of their own, so we give no figures island by island. On the mountainous islands such as Santo Antão and Fogo it is cooler and wetter at altitude.

The graph above shows something different from the table: how the month runs day by day, taken from the historical daily reports of weather station 85940 over 2012 to 2018. That series is not a climate normal and is not the source of any figure in the text; it is there to show whether a month runs flat or erratic.