Lagos weather by monthwhat to expect, and the best months to work from Lagos

Separate air and sea sources. Air temperature and rainfall use climate-data.org modelled data for Lagos, 1991–2021; sunshine uses 1999–2019 [1]. Sea uses NOAA OISST 2001–2020, a grid point offshore from Lagos [8]. Station normals used below belong to other towns and are labelled with their compiler and period. These are historical averages, not a forecast.

Lagos weather by month

Month	High °C	Low °C	Rain mm	Rainy days	Sun h/day	Sea °C
January	14.9	8.5	59	6	7	16.3
February	15.4	8.8	51	5	7	15.5
March	17.2	10.4	55	5	8	15.5
April	18.9	11.9	41	5	9	16.3
May	22.1	14.0	25	4	11	17.4
June	25.5	16.6	5	1	12	19.0
July	27.3	17.6	0	0	12	19.5
August	28.1	18.3	2	0	11	20.0
September	25.9	17.4	18	2	10	20.6
October	22.3	15.4	64	6	8	20.3
November	17.8	11.5	68	6	7	18.7
December	15.8	9.7	87	7	6	17.4

Air, rain and sunshine: climate-data.org, Lagos [1]. Sea: NOAA OISST v2.1 offshore surface temperatures, 2001–2020, calculated and checked on 11 October 2026 (Lagos 36.875° N, 8.625° W [8]). We average daily values within each month and year, then give each of the 20 annual monthly means equal weight. These 0.25° grid cells are coastal proxies, not measurements at individual beaches or a forecast. “High” and “Low” are mean daily maximum and minimum; “Sun” is average hours of bright sunshine per day, which is shorter than day length; “Sea” is the monthly average water temperature. “Rainy days” is the provider’s own count and it does not state the threshold it uses, so these days are not directly comparable with the station figures below, which count days with at least 1 mm. The provider shows two renderings of its table that differ slightly – May has 4 rainy days in one and 3 in the other, December 7 in the table and 8.7 in the accompanying text, and sunshine is rounded to whole hours in one and given to a decimal in the other; this page copies the first rendering as shown [1]. Annual rainfall is about 475 mm and the dataset gives about 3,300 hours of sunshine a year [1].

How to read the year

December to February. Daytime highs of 15–16 °C and 6–7 hours of sun a day, with nights falling to 8.5–10 °C [1]. December is the wettest month in the dataset (87 mm over about 7 rainy days) [1]. The question those night-time figures raise for anyone renting for a season is heating: what the flat has, and whether it works, is worth asking before booking.

March to May. The highs climb from 17 to 22 °C and the rainy days fall from 5 to 4 a month; sunshine rises from 8 to 11 hours a day between March and May [1]. March–May offshore sea averages rise from 15.5 to 17.4 °C [8].

June to August. Highs of 25–28 °C, lows of 17–18 °C, and effectively no rain in the averages: June 5 mm, July 0 mm, August 2 mm [1]. Sunshine peaks at 12 hours a day in June and July. The June, July and August sea averages are 19.0, 19.5 and 20.0 °C respectively [8].

September to November. September keeps highs of 26 °C with 2 rainy days and the warmest sea of the year (20.6 °C offshore monthly average) [1][8]. October still has highs of 22 °C and a 20.3 °C sea – compared with 19.0 °C in June [8] – but rainy days jump to 6 [1]. November: 17.8 °C by day, 7 hours of sun, 68 mm of rain over about 6 days [1].

Best months to work from Lagos

Three thresholds, chosen for this page rather than taken from any source: a daytime high between 18 and 26 °C, no more than 5 rainy days, and at least 9 hours of sunshine a day. On the table above, four months pass: April, May, June and September [1]. October misses on two counts (6 rainy days, 8 hours of sun) but keeps highs of 22 °C and a sea average of 20.3 °C, so it is a compromise worth naming rather than a month to rule out. July and August pass the rain and sun tests and fail only on heat, at 27–28 °C highs.

The winter case. For a reader coming from the UK, the interesting comparison is not Lagos in May against Lagos in January; it is Lagos in January against the winter at home. Highs of 15 °C and 7 hours of sunshine a day in January and February [1] describe a different season. Two caveats this page cannot settle from data: the nights, as above, and what is open out of season.

How much the coast varies: one “Algarve” figure hides a 5 °C spread

Weather pages often quote a single set of numbers for the Algarve. The station normals show how far such a figure can sit from any particular town. In July, the mean daily maximum is 25.2 °C at Sagres – IPMA’s 1991–2020 normal for station 533 [3][4] – and 30.7 °C at Tavira, Météo Climat’s 1991–2020 normal as reproduced on Wikipedia [5]: a 5.5 °C gap between the western and eastern ends of the same coast over the same 30 years, from two compilers of station data whose methods are not guaranteed identical. Lagos, between the two, sits at about 27 °C in the modelled dataset used here [1].

The whole coast from Faro’s official normals: Algarve weather by month.

Rain in November shows the same direction: Sagres records 8.4 days with at least 1 mm against Tavira’s 6.9 [4][5]. One month is not a pattern, but it fits the temperatures: Sagres’s summer is cooler, Tavira’s hotter.

Comparing Lagos with Faro on the same modelled dataset shows a smaller but consistent difference: Lagos nights are about 2 °C cooler than Faro’s all year (January low 8.5 °C against 10.9 °C), while summer days are about 1 °C warmer [1][2]. Whatever “Algarve” figure you are given, it helps to ask which station or model it came from.

Sea temperature

The offshore Lagos monthly averages range from 15.5 to 20.6 °C over 2001–2020 [8]. The same series is used throughout this page. Whether that water feels comfortable is personal, and a monthly offshore average cannot tell you the conditions at a specific beach.

Sources

1. climate-data.org: Lagos, Portugal: modelled climate table (temperatures and rain 1991–2021; sunshine 1999–2019); air, rain and sunshine only here, accessed 1 October 2026.
2. climate-data.org: Faro: same methodology, used for the Lagos–Faro comparison, accessed 1 October 2026.
3. IPMA: Normais climatológicas 1991–2020, Sagres, station 533 (PDF): mean daily maximum July 25.2 °C, accessed 1 October 2026.
4. Wikipedia: Sagres (Vila do Bispo): climate box reproducing the IPMA 1991–2020 normals, including days ≥ 1 mm, accessed 1 October 2026.
5. Wikipedia: Tavira: climate box reproducing Météo Climat 1991–2020 normals for temperature and precipitation (days ≥ 1 mm); the sunshine column there is IPMA 1951–1980 and is not used here, accessed 1 October 2026.
6. NOAA OISST v2.1: dataset description, accessed 11 October 2026.
7. Wikipedia: Lagos, Portugal: its climate box cites climate-data.org (2020), so it is not an independent check, accessed 1 October 2026.
8. NOAA OISST v2.1 Final: daily offshore SST, lagos (36.875 N, 8.625 W), 2001–2020; monthly means calculated from 20 annual monthly means, accessed 11 October 2026.