Essaouira weather in January

Forum posters describe January average temperatures around 17C, with conditions described as cool and rainy rather than reliable beach weather, and note even nearby Agadir stays only in the low 20s this time of year. Posters consistently name October through April as the strong surf season, with the biggest swells and best waves in late fall, winter and early spring - though the water itself runs coldest during exactly this same window, making a full wetsuit standard gear. Posters describe winter swells as sometimes too big for a casual swim in the shore break, though experienced surfers rate this window highly. Posters consistently recommend Taghazout specifically as a world-class winter surf destination, with one university surf club returning every January and reporting consistently good trips.

Regulars are specific this always counts as a good month to visit, one visitor's trip landing hot sun with cool sea breezes throughout and only a single day too windy for the beach. Our row backs that mild, genuinely dry read, 25.4C over 16.1C nights feeling 15C, with rain minimal at 10.2mm across 1.3 days and a real 27.3 kph wind. Regulars are consistent checking a rolling ten-day forecast, especially the pressure chart for Atlantic low-pressure systems approaching Morocco's coast, is the practical way locals track incoming windy stretches. Early-summer daylight lasting until around 9pm makes for genuinely good evening exploring in the Medina. The sea sits at a cool 18.3C. The record: 12.6 hours of sun, humidity 71 percent and AQI 46.

This town's July reputation rests on one column. The wind averages 28.7 kph - regulars name June, July and August as its windiest stretch - and their complaint is not cold but sand, blown into your face on the beach all afternoon. It is why the windsurfers come, and why sunbathers sometimes leave disappointed. The compensation is temperature: at 29.3C this is about ten degrees cooler than Marrakesh in the same month, whose column reads 39.2C, and the evenings cool here where Marrakesh's do not, down to 18.4C. Rain is a flat zero in both columns. The sea stays cold at 18.9C, which is the Atlantic doing the cooling. The record: humidity 69 percent, 12.8 hours of sun and AQI 41.

August here is the Atlantic answer to Marrakech, and regulars describe both halves of the bargain. The good half: far cooler than inland, to the point where visitors complain about cold nights - our 18.9C low is why. The bad half: June through August is the windy stretch, and on the beach that means sand blowing in your face for the afternoon, sandblasted being the word they use. Our row measures the wind at 27.2 kph and puts the sea at 19.3C, so this is a walking and eating month rather than a swimming one. Their range of roughly 17 to 27C runs a little under our 30.2C average high, which the wind conceals. The record: 0.1mm of rain, no precipitation days, and 12.2 hours of sun.

Essaouira is not called the windy city for nothing - it blows from April to November and hardest in June, July and August - which is exactly why regulars name September and October: warm, with the wind down to something you can sit in, calm clear sea and the summer crowds gone. Our row's 21.5 kph is genuinely modest for this coast. Their description of an October day is the useful part and it runs backwards from most places: warm enough for shorts in the morning, and by mid-afternoon you want a sweater as the sea breeze gets going. The 17.2C night reading as 16C is the other half of that. The end of the month can be lovely, with the usual caveat that nothing is promised. The record: 27.3C days, 13.6mm across 2.1 precipitation days, 10.2 hours of sun and a 20.5C sea.