Azores weather by monthSão Miguel's temperatures, rain, humidity and sea, honestly

One station, named. Temperature and rain below are the official IPMA 1991–2020 normal for Ponta Delgada (Observatório Afonso Chaves, 35 m above sea level) [1]. Sunshine comes from an older NOAA series (1961–1990) and is converted from monthly hours to hours a day [2]; sea temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1 (2001–2020) [6]. These are long-term averages, not a forecast.

The short answer: the Azores are mild all year and rarely hot, but rain comes in every month and the air is humid. The driest, sunniest stretch is June to September; July is the driest month, August the warmest. Winter is wet rather than cold. And the table is for the coast: the crater lakes and Furnas are higher, wetter and more often in cloud [4].

Sea data, checked 11 October 2026: we calculated monthly averages from NOAA OISST v2.1 for 2001–2020 at 37.625° N, 25.625° W, offshore from Ponta Delgada [6]. We averaged each year’s daily values within each month, then averaged those 20 monthly means. The 0.25° grid combines satellite and in-water observations; it represents offshore surface water, not a reading at a beach or pool. These are historical averages, not a forecast. Dataset method: [3].

Ponta Delgada weather by month

Month	High °C	Low °C	Rain mm	Rainy days	Sun h/day	Sea °C
January	17.5	12.7	102.1	13.0	3.1	17.0
February	17.4	12.1	87.2	10.8	3.7	16.5
March	17.9	12.6	97.1	11.7	3.9	16.3
April	18.8	13.3	79.6	10.2	4.7	16.6
May	20.2	14.6	61.0	8.7	5.6	17.8
June	22.4	16.8	44.4	6.6	5.4	19.6
July	24.7	18.9	26.0	4.8	6.7	21.9
August	26.0	19.9	45.8	6.5	6.9	23.3
September	25.0	19.1	78.2	9.4	5.8	23.1
October	22.6	17.1	118.0	13.7	4.6	21.3
November	19.9	14.9	95.3	11.8	3.6	19.4
December	18.3	13.4	152.8	15.0	3.0	17.9

Rainy day = at least 1 mm. Year: 987.5 mm on 122.3 days; mean temperature 18.2 °C [1].

What the table doesn’t show

• Humidity. Average relative humidity sits between 78% (July) and 83% (December) in every month [2]. nomads.com’s live reading on 9 October 2026 was 79–83% and labelled “damp” [5]. For a stay of weeks, ask your host about a dehumidifier and how laundry dries.
• Changeable days. IPMA’s days with heavy rain (≥ 10 mm) are few, 0.6 in July to 4.5 in December [1]: much of the rain comes as showers between brighter spells. That is why “four seasons in a day” is the cliché; we don’t have a dataset that measures it.
• Altitude. On São Miguel, annual rain rises by about 196 mm for every 100 m you climb; the wettest gauges get over 2,900 mm a year, about three times Ponta Delgada [4]. The same study found rain falling in recent decades, most in autumn and winter, but not evenly across stations [4].
• Rarely hot, no frost. In the 1991–2020 normal, days at 30 °C or more were so rare in Ponta Delgada that they average 0.0 a year and 0 nights below 0 °C; the hottest day on record in that period was 30.1 °C [1].

Month groups

• June–September: highs 22–26 °C, 5–9 rainy days, sea from 19.6 °C in June to 23.3 °C in August and 23.1 °C in September. The best odds of clear views at the crater lakes, and the busiest time.
• October and May: shoulder months. October is warmer (22.6 °C, sea 21.3 °C) but much wetter (13.7 rainy days); May is cooler (20.2 °C, sea 17.8 °C) with fewer rainy days (8.7).
• November–April: highs 17–20 °C, 10–15 rainy days, 3–5 hours of sun a day. Fine for hot springs and cosy work weeks, less so for viewpoints. Is it worth it, and what’s open: the Azores in winter.

When to go, with crowds and prices: best time to visit the Azores.