Marrakesh-Safi month by month, at a glance
Figures for the plain, with Marrakesh as reference. Hover over each month.
On 15 July in Marrakesh the mean daily maximum is 37.7 degrees. That same day, 175 kilometres to the west in Essaouira, the maximum is around 23. And some 75 kilometres to the south, at the Oukaïmeden resort at 2,600 metres, snow may still be lying on shaded slopes. All three happen inside the same administrative region, and that is the key to deciding when to come: here the question is not “which month” but “which month, and at what altitude”.
01 Three climates in a hundred and fifty kilometres
Marrakesh-Safi runs from the Atlantic to the High Atlas, with four thousand metres of relief between the extremes. That produces three distinct regimes living side by side: a cool, windy coast, an arid plain that is very hot in summer, and high mountains with seasonal snow.
The plain's figures, taking Marrakesh as reference on the 1991-2020 series: 221 millimetres of rain a year over 29.1 days, and 3,251.7 hours of sunshine, which is an enormous amount. July brings 2.2 millimetres and three tenths of a rain day. This is arid in the technical sense, not the rhetorical one.
02 Why the coast is cold in summer
The explanation has two parts and both are oceanic. The first is a cold current running along Morocco's Atlantic coast that keeps water and air several degrees below what the latitude would suggest. The second is the trade winds, north-easterlies generated by Atlantic anticyclones, which blow hardest precisely from April to September.
The result is that Essaouira sees maxima of around 23 degrees in July and August while the interior plain is at 37. For a traveller that means one very practical thing: summer in this region is not impossible, but it requires sleeping on the coast.
The catch has to be said: the same wind that cools blows steadily and hard in those same months. The Essaouira coast in July is excellent for walking, for sailing and for escaping the heat, and fairly poor for lying on the sand.
03 The plain between June and September
From June to August the Haouz plain records mean maxima of 33.6, 37.7 and 37.4 degrees. September falls to 32.5, which is still a great deal. And since it rains essentially nothing, the heat is dry: more bearable in shade than humid heat of the same number, but in the sun at midday there is no managing it.
The consequence for an itinerary is direct. In summer the plain can be visited early and late in the day, and in between you should be indoors or in water. Any plan involving countryside, valley or ruins at midday in July is a badly made plan.
Key moments at a glance
25.7 °C on the plain, snow still in the Atlas and the coast not yet at full wind.
28.5 °C, 19.1 mm of rain and the summer heat already discharged.
Unworkable on the plain at midday; 23 on the coast. Choose where you sleep.
When the Oukaïmeden resort, at 2,600 metres, has its best cover.
04 The mountains have a real winter
The other surprise is the snow. The Oukaïmeden resort sits between 2,600 and 3,200 metres, and at that altitude cover is reasonably reliable from January to late March or April. It is about seventy-five kilometres from a city where the January mean maximum is 19.1 degrees.
That reads two ways for a planner. One: in midwinter the region offers a combination that is hard to find, a mild city and snowy mountains ninety minutes apart. The other, less pleasant: anyone going up into the High Atlas valleys between December and March should count on mountain roads with snow, ice and occasional closures, and on arriving late.
05 April and October are the two months that work for everything
If the trip wants to combine all three altitudes, there are two windows. April gives 25.7 degrees on the plain, with 26.3 millimetres of rain over 2.9 days, snow still on the summits and a coast that has not yet reached its windiest phase.
October is the mirror image: 28.5 degrees, 19.1 millimetres, the summer heat already discharged and the air clean. March and November work too, slightly cooler and with slightly more chance of rain — 35.2 and 29.8 millimetres respectively — and with the advantage of fewer people.
06 The honest summary
April and October if you want to cover the whole region. March and November as second choices. July and August only with a base on the coast, accepting the wind. And January and February if what you want is the mountains in snow, with the city as a mild base.
What does not work is treating this region as a single climate. The same July week can be unbearable sixty kilometres from where it is perfect, and that distance takes under an hour to cover.
