Lanzarote weather month by month and the best time to go

Lanzarote's weather can be summed up in a few words: it hardly ever rains, it is never really cold and the wind nearly always blows. The island is too low to hold on to the trade-wind clouds, so, as AEMET (Spain's met office) puts it, it watches the cloud ceiling pass overhead without letting go of its rain. That is why it is one of the driest of the Canary Islands, along with Fuerteventura.

The figures on this page are AEMET's climate normals for Lanzarote airport (1981–2010) and the average sea temperature off Puerto del Carmen. They are averages: any given day can bring calima, strong wind or a rare downpour. For the forecast for your own dates, check AEMET's forecast.

When is the best time to visit Lanzarote

It depends on what you are coming to do, because the climate is good all year. Our short answer:

• For swimming: September to October. The sea is at its warmest (23.0 °C in September and 22.8 °C in October) and the air at 26–29 °C.
• For walking and seeing volcanoes: May and June. There is practically no rain, almost 10 hours of sunshine a day and the heat has not yet kicked in. On top of that, across the Canaries these are the months with the fewest tourist arrivals.
• For surfing: October to March, with the north and north-west swell at Famara.
• For windsurfing and kitesurfing: March to September, when the trade wind is steadiest.
• To escape the European winter: November to February. Of the Canary Islands' coastal airports, Lanzarote has the most January sunshine (6.5 hours a day), although it also has the coolest winter nights (14.0 °C).

Winter: December, January and February

Lanzarote weather in December

Highs of 21.8 °C and lows of 15.4 °C. It is the wettest month, but in Lanzarote that means 29 mm spread over about 4 days. The sea is at 20.1 °C and it gets dark around 18:00. The island is full: Christmas and New Year are the busiest fortnight. Early in the month the Lanzarote International Marathon is run in Costa Teguise.

Lanzarote weather in January

The coolest month: 20.7 °C by day and 14.0 °C at night. Bring a jacket for the evenings and for Timanfaya, where CACT advises a warm layer from October to April. There is 16 mm of rain over about 3 days and 6.5 hours of sunshine a day, more than at any other coastal airport in the islands. The sea drops to 19.1 °C: you can swim, but a long snorkel gets chilly. On 5 January there is the Cabalgata de Reyes (Three Kings parade) in Arrecife and the other towns.

Lanzarote weather in February

Highs of 21.3 °C and the sea at its coldest, 18.3 °C. It is Carnival month: Arrecife, Puerto del Carmen and Teguise, where Los Diabletes come out. It is held around Shrove Tuesday, which falls 47 days before Easter Sunday, so the date changes every year. Along with January, February is also when calima episodes last longest.

Spring: March, April and May

Lanzarote weather in March

Highs of 22.9 °C, 12 mm of rain and the sea still at 18.3 °C. Across the Canaries it is the month with the most tourist arrivals of the year, and if Easter falls early, visitors from mainland Spain add to the numbers. Book Timanfaya and boat trips in advance. The wind picks up: the windsurf schools at Las Cucharas count on the trade wind from March.

Lanzarote weather in April

23.5 °C, just 5 mm of rain and 8.5 hours of sunshine. Aquapark Costa Teguise reopens (season from late March to early November); in April and May it closes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Its water is not heated, so on a cool day the pools feel cold.

Lanzarote weather in May

24.6 °C, practically no rain (0.4 days a month) and 9.6 hours of sunshine. For us, the best month for walking and for anyone who wants the beach without the crowds: across the Canaries, May and June are the months with the fewest tourists. IRONMAN Lanzarote takes place in May, starting in Puerto del Carmen: on race day roads are closed, especially along the bike course.

Summer: June, July and August

Lanzarote weather in June

26.3 °C, zero rain and nearly 10 hours of sunshine; in mid-month it gets dark around 20:45. In mid-June the Lanzarote Wine Run and wine festival take place, with a race through the La Geria vineyards and a fair with the island's wineries in Uga. On the night of 23 June San Juan bonfires are lit on the beaches. The sea rises to 20.9 °C.

Lanzarote weather in July

Highs of 28.2 °C and 20.4 °C at night. The trade wind blows on seven days out of ten: it is the month with the steadiest wind, perfect for windsurfing and kitesurfing, a nuisance at Famara and at the northern viewpoints. In early July the grape harvest begins in Lanzarote, one of the first in the northern hemisphere. School holidays start and the island fills up with families.

Lanzarote weather in August

The hottest month: average highs of 29.1 °C, the highest of the Canary Islands' coastal airports. The sea is at 22.4 °C. Do Timanfaya and walks first thing and save the afternoon for the beach or the water park.

Autumn: September, October and November

Lanzarote weather in September

28.6 °C and the warmest sea of the year, 23.0 °C. From 1 to 15 September the Fiestas de Los Dolores are held in Mancha Blanca (Tinajo), with a pilgrimage, traditional music and the well-known Lanzarote Craft Fair; the 15th is the feast day of the island's patron saint. From late September there is a window, very rarely used, for the odd tropical storm.

Lanzarote weather in October

26.7 °C, the sea still at 22.8 °C and the first showers (10 mm). It is our favourite month for the water: a warm sea without the summer crowds, although the winter high season begins. The surf season starts at Famara. At the end of the month the clocks go back.

Lanzarote weather in November

24.2 °C and 15 mm of rain over about 3 days. Early in the month Aquapark Costa Teguise closes until late March; Aqualava, in Playa Blanca, stays open all year with heated pools. At the end of November Saborea Lanzarote, the food festival in the Villa de Teguise, takes place.

Wind in Lanzarote: the trade wind

The wind is what surprises new arrivals most. The trade wind blows from the north-east on 45 % of days in January and 70 % in July, so summer is the windiest season, the opposite of what many people expect. It hits the north and east coasts hardest.

What that means in practice: Las Cucharas, in Costa Teguise, is the windsurfing bay; Famara takes wind and sea head-on; in the Papagayo coves and on the Playa Blanca beaches the water is usually calm. Paragliding flights depend on the direction and strength of the trade wind, and the take-off point changes from day to day. If you go to the beach on a windy day, take a windbreak and look for a sheltered cove. We cover this in Lanzarote beaches.

Calima in Lanzarote

Calima is Saharan dust that arrives on an east or south-east wind: the sky turns yellowish, visibility drops and the temperature often rises. There are two ways of counting it. Intense episodes, the ones that affect aviation, come to about 24 days a year in the Canaries and last almost two days on average; the longest occur in January and February. Some dust in the air is far more common, around 146 days a year.

In February 2020 one episode forced all eight Canary Islands airports to close. The health authorities recommend that children, older people and anyone with breathing or heart problems avoid outdoor exercise on those days, keep windows closed and drink water. A calima day is a good day for an indoor or easy-going plan, not for a long hike.

When boat trips are cancelled

Boats depend more on the sea than the sky. With an AEMET orange warning for coastal conditions, the ferry and boat companies change or cancel sailings: in a February storm, Líneas Romero and Biosfera Express altered and suspended crossings between Órzola and La Graciosa, and in one windy December the La Graciosa link was partly shut down. Winter storms, from the north-west round to the south-west, are the ones that make the sea most difficult.

What happens to your booking:

• Líneas Romero refunds your money if it cancels because of the weather, and nothing more; its excursions can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours before.
• Lanzarote Sea Tours refunds you or changes the date if the weather prevents sailing; if you do not turn up, it charges the full amount.
• Catlanza and H2O Sports allow free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Rain and storms

Lanzarote gets little rain, and it comes all at once. From June to August practically not a drop falls; from November to January is the "wet season", which means 3 or 4 days of rain a month. But when a low-pressure system arrives it can be heavy: in one April storm up to 120 l/m² fell in Tahíche, 100 in Costa Teguise and more than 60 in Arrecife, and for the first time a flood emergency was declared in Lanzarote. Between late September and November, very occasionally, a tropical storm reaches the Canaries.

A rainy or very windy day still has good options: the caves and Manrique sites (Jameos del Agua, Cueva de los Verdes), the aquarium in Costa Teguise or Aqualava, which has heated pools.

Sea temperature in Lanzarote

The sea does not follow the air: it warms slowly and peaks in September, not August. Lanzarote is washed by a cold current, not the Gulf Stream as you sometimes read, which is why the water is refreshing even in high summer.

For diving, December and January are the months when angel sharks are most active off Playa Chica. For swimming without shivering, July to November. See diving in Lanzarote if you fancy going under.

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If you are deciding what to do each day, start with our list of things to do in Lanzarote and the guide to Timanfaya, the visit that depends most on the heat and the time of day.