Climate and average weather in Santa Rosa

In Santa Rosa, the weather is muggy, hot, wet, and mostly cloudy and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near hot levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around March.

Best: early July to late November

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Santa Rosa typically varies from 19°C to 29°C, and is rarely below 18°C or above 31°C. March is the hottest month of the year, while August is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best time of year to visit Santa Rosa for warm-weather activities is from early July to late November.

Hottest
Mar
29°
Coldest
Aug
19°
Wettest
Mar
461 mm
Driest
Aug
30 mm
Rain / yr
1997 mm
229 wet days
Daylight
11.8–12.2 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
81 m
3.5°S
Clearest
Aug
77% cloud

Santa Rosa is city of El Oro Province, Ecuador.

Founded
1600

Air quality: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Density & description: Wikidata (CC0), GeoNames.

Santa Rosa weather by month, at a glance

The whole year in one picture — sky, rain, humidity, temperature and travel score. Click any band to jump to its full chart.

Each stripe is one measure across the whole year, stacked so a single day reads top to bottom. The sky band runs overcast grey on top down to clear blue at the base — more blue means sunnier — followed by the rainfall curve, the humidity band, a temperature strip that tints each stretch of the year by how warm its average high is, and the travel-score line at the foot. Scan straight down any date to read that day across every measure at once; the score climbs highest around early July to late November.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

Daily average highs and lows in Santa Rosa, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

Temperatures in Santa Rosa stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is March, with an average high of 29°C and low of 23°C; the coolest is August, with an average low of 19°C and high of 26°C.

Days typically run about 6°C warmer than nights year-round.

15°20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan2822
Feb2923
Mar2923
Apr2923
May2822
Jun2721
Jul2620
Aug2619
Sep2620
Oct2720
Nov2720
Dec2821

How hot and cold Santa Rosa really feels

Feels-like highFeels-like lowactual air temp

The felt-temperature range through the year — heat index on the day's high (summer humidity), wind chill on the night's low (winter wind). The dashed lines are the plain thermometer; the gap is how much hotter or colder it really feels.

On the hottest afternoons, once humidity is folded in, Santa Rosa feels like about 32°C (around April 9). About 41 days a year carry some heat stress, peaking in April.

15°20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan31282222
Feb32292323
Mar32292323
Apr32292323
May31282222
Jun28272121
Jul26262020
Aug26261919
Sep26262020
Oct27272020
Nov29272020
Dec30282121

Average hourly temperature in Santa Rosa

A compact picture of the whole year, hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled average temperature. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

Read left to right for the day of the year and top to bottom for the hour of the day; the color is the modeled temperature, cool blues through to hot reds on the same scale as the other charts. A vertical slice is a single day's swing — coolest just before dawn, warmest in the mid-afternoon — while a horizontal slice follows one hour across the seasons. The darker overlay marks night and the lighter one the twilight around sunrise and sunset. Colors run warmest on March afternoons, near 29°C, and coldest before dawn in August, near 19°C.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM

Santa Rosa weather by month

Every month at a glance. Click a month for its detailed page.

MonthHigh / Low (°C)Rainfall (mm)Wet daysDaylight (hours)Travel score
Jan28° / 22°24626.512.23.4
Feb29° / 23°36626.312.13.0
Mar29° / 23°46127.9123.1
Apr29° / 23°29825.511.93.3
May28° / 22°19224.711.83.8
Jun27° / 21°8118.511.84.9
Jul26° / 20°5215.611.85.5
Aug26° / 19°309.311.96.4
Sep26° / 20°338.2126.4
Oct27° / 20°4712.312.15.7
Nov27° / 20°6213.312.25.4
Dec28° / 21°12920.412.24.4

Chance of rain

How likely it is to rain on a typical day, and how that shifts across the wetter and drier seasons.

Santa Rosa gets about 1997 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is very wet, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 6.0 months, from around Dec 14 to Jun 13, peaking in February at about 94% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Sep 2.

March is the wettest month by volume, with 461 mm over about 28 wet days; August is the driest, with 30 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdriermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetFeb 9 · 94%Sep 2 · 24%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8627
Feb9326
Mar9028
Apr8526
May7925
Jun6219
Jul4916
Aug319
Sep288
Oct3912
Nov4513
Dec6520

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Santa Rosa collects about 1997 mm of rain across 229 wet days — roughly 166 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. March is the wettest month with 461 mm, while August is the driest at just 30 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 56% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450500550JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec246366461298192815230334762129
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan24627
Feb36626
Mar46128
Apr29826
May19225
Jun8119
Jul5216
Aug309
Sep338
Oct4712
Nov6213
Dec12920

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

How often the daytime sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast.

In Santa Rosa, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows mild seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around July 7 and lasts for 3.3 months, ending around October 15. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 13% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around November 22 and lasts for 7.5 months, ending around July 6. The cloudiest month is March, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 97% of the time.

0%100%10%90%20%80%30%70%40%60%50%50%60%40%70%30%80%20%90%10%100%0%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecSep 7 · 16%Mar 1 · 2%partly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan694
Feb397
Mar397
Apr595
May496
Jun595
Jul991
Aug1387
Sep1387
Oct694
Nov694
Dec694

Daylight, sunrise and sunset

DaylightNight

Hours of daylight through the year, with sunrise and sunset times.

The gold band is daylight — sunrise runs along its lower edge, sunset along the upper — so it widens toward summer and pinches toward winter, with night the dark area above and below. Close to the equator, Santa Rosa barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 12 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.26:246:35
Feb12.16:316:38
Mar12.06:296:30
Apr11.96:226:18
May11.86:216:11
Jun11.86:266:14
Jul11.86:316:20
Aug11.96:276:21
Sep12.06:156:14
Oct12.16:036:07
Nov12.26:006:10
Dec12.26:106:22

Sunny days

How many genuinely sunny days each month brings — days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — banded into plain-language zones.

Santa Rosa gets about 0 sunny days a month gloomy — and it barely shifts through the year, holding between 0 and 0 days every month. Clear skies here are a flat line, not a season.

05JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgloomySep 90 daysFeb 40 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb0Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr0Gloomy
May0Gloomy
Jun0Gloomy
Jul0Gloomy
Aug0Gloomy
Sep0Gloomy
Oct0Gloomy
Nov0Gloomy
Dec0Gloomy

Humidity comfort

DryComfortableHumidMuggyOppressiveMiserable

Share of days at each humidity comfort level, based on the dew point — the measure that tracks how muggy it actually feels.

Humidity comfort is graded by the dew point — the temperature at which the air would be fully saturated — because it tracks how muggy it actually feels far better than relative humidity does. A low dew point feels dry and crisp; a high one feels sticky and oppressive no matter the reading on a humidity gauge.

Santa Rosa is humid all year round — on a typical day the air feels at least humid, and there is no real dry season to wait for.

The stickiest month is January, when it feels muggy, oppressive or miserable about 100% of the time. Even in January, the mildest month, the air is dry or comfortable only 0% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecoppressivemuggy
Humid (%)Muggy (%)Oppressive (%)Miserable (%)
Jan026730
Feb012862
Mar07912
Apr05941
May017821
Jun057430
Jul186130
Aug29440
Sep19540
Oct29260
Nov486100
Dec062370

Wind

Average wind speed through the year, banded into plain-language speed zones so a number reads as 'breezy' or 'calm' without knowing the scale.

This is the average sustained wind speed at the standard 10 metres above open ground — the steady flow a weather station reports, not the sharper gusts that come and go, which can run half again as fast. It's the number that says whether a place is generally breezy or calm.

Wind in Santa Rosa is steady company: average speeds sit near 5 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmAug 16 · 6 km/hFeb 15 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan5calm
Feb4calm
Mar4calm
Apr4calm
May5calm
Jun5calm
Jul6calm
Aug6calm
Sep6calm
Oct6calm
Nov6calm
Dec5calm

Hazard calendar for Santa Rosa

In seasonPeak

When the seasonal hazards worth planning around — the rainy season, tropical-cyclone risk and dust haze — are active through the year.

Santa Rosa's monsoon runs January–April, when most of the year's rain falls.

Monsoon
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Best time to visit Santa Rosa

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

To characterize how pleasant the weather is in Santa Rosa throughout the year, we compute two travel scores — one for general sightseeing, one for beach and pool weather.

Around mid November, Santa Rosa is still near the tail of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds already thinning.

Inferred from the travel-score curve; month-by-month visitor numbers are a planned addition.

The travel score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 18°C and 28°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Santa Rosa for general outdoor tourist activities is from early July to late November, with a peak score in the last week of August.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 30 · 6.6

The travel score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

Travel score (0–10)Rating
Jan3.4poor
Feb3.1poor
Mar3.1poor
Apr3.3poor
May3.8fair
Jun4.8fair
Jul5.6good
Aug6.4good
Sep6.4good
Oct5.7good
Nov5.4fair
Dec4.4fair

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Santa Rosa for hot-weather activities is from early July to mid December, with a peak score in the first week of September.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationSep 5 · 6.4

The beach/pool score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

What to pack for Santa Rosa, by month

EssentialRecommendedOptional

Month by month, what's worth putting in the bag — from the temperature range, rain chance, sun and wind. Tap a month for a quick packing note.

Santa Rosa packs about the same all year — highs hold near 29°C. Across the year the things worth having are light clothes, rain gear and sun protection.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In March, Santa Rosa sees daytime highs around 29°C and nights near 23°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 28 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Santa Rosa

Average ocean temperature at the nearest coast, month by month, banded into swim-comfort zones — the other half of the beach question.

The sea at the nearest coast (about 38 km away) is warmest in March at about 27°C and coldest in September near 23°C.

The water stays above 20°C all year — warm enough for a swim any month.

22°24°26°28°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecrefreshingwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan26Warm
Feb27Warm
Mar27Warm
Apr26Warm
May26Warm
Jun25Warm
Jul24Refreshing
Aug23Refreshing
Sep23Refreshing
Oct24Refreshing
Nov24Refreshing
Dec25Warm

UV index (midday) in Santa Rosa by month

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Clear-sky midday UV index through the year, shaded by the WHO exposure levels — how much sun protection each month calls for.

Under clear skies, the midday UV index in Santa Rosa peaks around February 21 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near July 16 at about 10 (very high).

The index reaches 3 or more — the level where the WHO recommends sun protection — every month of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeExtremeFeb 21UV 15Jul 16UV 10
UV index (midday)Level
Jan14Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr12Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun10Extreme
Jul10Very high
Aug10Extreme
Sep12Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov12Extreme
Dec12Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Santa Rosa

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Modeled clear-sky UV for every hour of every day — when in the day sun protection actually matters.

The whole year hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled clear-sky UV index — the midday peak scaled down as the sun sits lower in the sky. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

UV falls off far faster than brightness as the sun drops, so even in February the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 8.5 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 6.5 hours reach 6 or more. Mornings and late afternoons stay comparatively gentle year round.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM
UV ≥ 3 (h/day)UV ≥ 6 (h/day)
Jan8.56.5
Feb8.56.5
Mar8.56.5
Apr86
May86
Jun7.55
Jul7.55
Aug7.55
Sep86
Oct86
Nov86
Dec86

Air quality in Santa Rosa by month

GoodModeratePoorUnhealthyVery unhealthy

Average fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) through the year — so you can see which months the air is worst, not just the yearly average.

Air quality in Santa Rosa is worst in December — around 29 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 3.1× the cleanest month (August, 9 µg/m³).

Modeled monthly averages (CAMS reanalysis, 2015–2024).

010203040JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateGoodModerateDec 1128 µg/m³Aug 219 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan15Moderate
Feb14Moderate
Mar14Moderate
Apr15Moderate
May15Moderate
Jun15Moderate
Jul12Moderate
Aug9Good
Sep10Good
Oct14Moderate
Nov27Moderate
Dec29Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Santa Rosa is frost-free year round — even the coldest nights rarely reach freezing, so there is no start or end to the growing season.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecfrost-free year round
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan1000
Feb1000
Mar1000
Apr1000
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct1000
Nov1000
Dec1000

Growing degree days

Degree days (base 10°C)Frost-free shaded

Growing degree days tally heat above 10°C: each day adds however many degrees its average temperature runs over that threshold, and cold days add nothing. Santa Rosa banks about 5,223 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around March.

02,0004,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan476
Feb438
Mar490
Apr470
May467
Jun415
Jul400
Aug390
Sep389
Oct415
Nov414
Dec457

Solar energy

Average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground, banded into brightness zones so the number means something at a glance.

Solar energy is how much sunlight actually reaches the ground each day, measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre (kWh/m²) — the combined effect of how long the sun is up, how high it climbs, and how much cloud gets in the way. It's the raw fuel a solar panel has to work with: for scale, 1 kWh/m² a day is dim and wintry, while 7+ is desert-bright.

Santa Rosa receives about 5.0 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.5 and 5.5 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseSep 55.5 kWhMay 294.5 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.7Bright
Feb4.7Bright
Mar4.8Bright
Apr4.8Bright
May4.6Bright
Jun4.6Bright
Jul4.9Bright
Aug5.4Bright
Sep5.5Bright
Oct5.3Bright
Nov5.3Bright
Dec5.0Bright

Where is Santa Rosa?

Santa Rosa sits at 3.5°S, 80.0°W, 81 m above sea level, in Ecuador. The nearest listed city is Arenillas, 16 km away.

Topography around Santa Rosa

How much the land rises and falls, and what covers it, within 3, 16 and 80 km of Santa Rosa.

Within 3 km, the terrain around Santa Rosa has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 41 m around an average of 10 m above sea level; within 16 km, large variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 1,121 m; within 80 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 4,137 m.

The land around Santa Rosa is covered by trees (39%), grassland (33%) and artificial surfaces (22%) within 3 km, trees (54%) within 16 km, and trees (40%), water (27%) and grassland (25%) within 80 km.

3 km
41 m
16 km
1,121 m
80 km
4,137 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrainwaterwetlandmangroves
Nearby: Arenillas 16 km · Machala 22 km · Pasaje 23 km · Guabo 28 km · Huaquillas 30 km · Zarumilla 35 km · Piñas 40 km · Tumbes 54 km

Ecuador travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type A / B
120 V · 60 Hz
Prices
≈ 43% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$7,125
2025
Happiness
6.1 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
70%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
45.7
per 100k, 2023
Road deaths
20.1
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Upper middle
World Bank
English
Low
EF EPI 466
Religion
Roman Catholic 68%Protestant 19%none 8%other 2%

Sources: World Bank, US State Department, World Happiness Report, WHO/UNICEF, EF EPI, CIA World Factbook.

Data sources

Temperature, precipitation, cloud, humidity, wind and solar figures are a 1991–2020 climatology for Santa Rosa (-3.4557°, -79.9637°, elevation 81 m), computed from hourly ERA5 reanalysis — contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Sun figures are astronomical calculations, not observations. City data © GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Map outlines from Natural Earth (public domain); interactive map © Google. Sea temperatures are the NOAA OISST v2.1 1991–2020 monthly climatology (public domain), sampled at the nearest ocean point. UV index is derived from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) clear-sky UV data — contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information. Monthly air-quality (PM2.5) seasonality is from the CAMS EAC4 reanalysis (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service), scaled to the WHO annual mean where available. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).