Discover the best time of year, based on historical climate, temperature, and precipitation.
The best weather in Cairo is from March, November, December. — consistent weather climate
🌡Hot & dry
| Score | 75 | 89 | 98 | 91 | 67 | 44 | 36 | 36 | 47 | 86 | 99 | 93 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate | Mild | Mild | Pleasant | Pleasant | Hot & dry | Hot & dry | Hot & dry | Hot & dry | Hot & dry | Pleasant | Pleasant | Mild |
| Temperature | 9–19°C | 10–21°C | 12–25°C | 15–30°C | 19–34°C | 22–37°C | 23–38°C | 24–38°C | 23–36°C | 20–31°C | 16–26°C | 12–21°C |
| Feels like | 6–15°C | 8–18°C | 10–22°C | 14–27°C | 18–32°C | 23–36°C | 26–39°C | 27–38°C | 25–36°C | 21–30°C | 15–24°C | 10–18°C |
| Precipitation | 6mm 2 days | 7mm 2 days | 9mm 2 days | 2mm 1 days | 0mm 0 days | 0mm 0 days | 0mm 0 days | 0mm 0 days | 0mm 0 days | 3mm 1 days | 3mm 1 days | 6mm 1 days |
| Sunshine | 9.3h ☀︎ 89% | 9.3h ☀︎ 84% | 10.8h ☀︎ 90% | 11.5h ☀︎ 89% | 12.4h ☀︎ 91% | 13.6h ☀︎ 97% | 13.5h ☀︎ 98% | 12.2h ☀︎ 93% | 11.7h ☀︎ 95% | 10.7h ☀︎ 93% | 9.7h ☀︎ 91% | 9.1h ☀︎ 89% |
| Wind | W · 19 km/h | NW · 18 km/h | N · 21 km/h | N · 22 km/h | N · 22 km/h | N · 22 km/h | N · 21 km/h | N · 21 km/h | N · 21 km/h | N · 19 km/h | N · 17 km/h | NW · 17 km/h |
| Humidity (%) | 56% | 55% | 48% | 42% | 39% | 41% | 45% | 47% | 50% | 55% | 57% | 60% |
| Day length | 10.5h | 11.1h | 12.0h | 12.9h | 13.7h | 14.0h | 13.9h | 13.2h | 12.3h | 11.4h | 10.6h | 10.2h |
One of the largest and oldest book fairs in the Arab world, drawing millions of visitors annually. Held in late January…
One of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals in the Arab world and Africa, attracting international filmmakers…
An annual celebration of jazz music, featuring local and international artists across various venues in Cairo. Typically…
Celebrated on January 7th, Coptic Christmas is a significant religious holiday for Egypt's large Coptic Christian commun…
D-CAF is an independent, multi-disciplinary arts festival showcasing local, regional, and international contemporary art…
Cairo is an open-air theater of twenty-two million souls that only truly makes sense when you can walk it; time your trip to November or March, and the sprawling desert metropolis feels electrifying rather than suffocating.
Travelers arrive in Cairo pulled by antiquity—by the Giza pyramid complex looming on the desert rim, the ancient ghosts of Memphis and Heliopolis, and the thousand minarets that have punctuated the skyline since the city rose from the medieval foundations of Fustat. Yet Cairo is not a museum that pauses for contemplation. It is an overwhelming, roaring living organism along the banks of the Nile. The difference between an unforgettable voyage through its layered centuries and an exhausting ordeal comes down entirely to how the air feels when you step out of shelter.
November is the finest month on Cairo's calendar. The summer heat breaks completely, leaving days bathed in soft, golden sunlight with highs settling around 26 degrees and evenings that carry a gentle chill off the Nile. You can spend an entire afternoon wandering the narrow, medieval alleyways around Khan el-Khalili without retreating into shadow, watching tea vendors weave through courtyard crowds with brass trays.
Cultural life accelerates to match the weather. The Cairo International Film Festival and the Cairo Jazz Festival draw filmmakers and musicians into open-air venues and historic halls across the city. December turns slightly cooler, dropping into the high teens, which brings heavier tour groups out to the desert monuments. Even as tourist numbers climb toward their year-end peak, the air remains crisp, dry, and exceptionally gentle.
Winter in Cairo feels brisk, often catching travelers off guard with chilly desert nights and breezy mornings that demand a proper jacket. In January, Old Cairo takes on a festive solemnity for Coptic Christmas, filling historic churches with incense and candlelit hymns while the surrounding alleys remain quiet and cool.
February marks the absolute height of the city's visitor volume. Huge domestic and regional crowds gather on the eastern edge of the city for the mammoth Cairo International Book Fair, turning transport routes into lively bottlenecks. At the Giza plateau, the lack of shade is an asset rather than a liability under the pale winter sun, though you will be sharing the limestone vistas with tour buses from across the globe. It is busy, but entirely comfortable for long days on your feet.
March rivals November as one of the calendar's absolute highlights. The days warm up to a pleasant mid-twenties, the winter chill evaporates, and street life in Downtown Cairo spills over into terrace cafes and sidewalk galleries. The Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-CAF) takes over neoclassical courtyards, rooftops, and forgotten ballrooms, turning the faded European-style quarter into a playground for indie theater and performance art.
By April, the desert begins to assert itself. Temperatures push toward 30 degrees, and the occasional hot southern wind can sweep a veil of fine sand across the urban sprawl. Yet the evenings stay balmy, and taking a wooden felucca boat out onto the water around Zamalek as dusk settles over the minarets remains effortless.
From May through September, Cairo turns into a pressure cooker. Midday highs hover near 38 degrees, but reflected off miles of asphalt and dusty concrete, the apparent heat feels relentless. Walking the open stone courtyards of medieval mosques or hiking up toward the Citadel during daylight is punishing. Sensible life retreats behind thick masonry and air conditioning until sundown, when the riverfront corniche finally fills with families eating sunflower seeds and rented party boats blasting music under neon lights.
Curiously, August and September see steady streams of travelers despite the blistering weather, often locked into summer vacation schedules. It is a grueling way to experience the capital. Only in late October does the furnace truly click off, when daytime temperatures drop toward manageable thresholds and the city exhales in relief, priming itself for the return of open-air life.