Climate and average weather in Cajamarca

In Cajamarca, the weather is mild, wet, and mostly clear and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near mild levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around March.

Best: early June to early September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Cajamarca typically varies from 7°C to 19°C, and is rarely below 5°C or above 21°C. August is the hottest month of the year, while January is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best time of year to visit Cajamarca for warm-weather activities is from early June to early September.

Hottest
Aug
19°
Coldest
Jan
Wettest
Mar
495 mm
Driest
Jul
32 mm
Rain / yr
2893 mm
246 wet days
Daylight
11.6–12.4 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
2,700 m
7.2°S
Clearest
Jul
46% cloud

Cajamarca is capital city of Cajamarca, Peru.

Density
513/km²
people per km²
Founded
1320

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

Cajamarca 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 June to early September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Cajamarca stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is August, with an average high of 19°C and low of 7°C; the coolest is January, with an average low of 8°C and high of 17°C.

Days typically run about 10°C warmer than nights year-round.

10°15°20°25°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan178
Feb179
Mar179
Apr179
May188
Jun188
Jul187
Aug197
Sep188
Oct178
Nov187
Dec178

Average hourly temperature in Cajamarca

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 August afternoons, near 19°C, and coldest before dawn in January, near C.

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

Cajamarca 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
Jan17° / 35926.612.43.3
Feb17° / 43025.412.23.1
Mar17° / 49529.4123.0
Apr17° / 31426.711.83.3
May18° / 15821.511.74.3
Jun18° / 5810.811.65.9
Jul18° / 326.811.66.6
Aug19° / 438.711.86.5
Sep18° / 16719.8124.5
Oct17° / 27825.712.23.6
Nov18° / 24320.912.34.0
Dec17° / 3172412.43.7

Chance of rain

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

Cajamarca gets about 2893 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 8.0 months, from around Sep 17 to May 19, peaking in March at about 95% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jul 27.

March is the wettest month by volume, with 495 mm over about 29 wet days; July is the driest, with 32 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetMar 8 · 95%Jul 27 · 20%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8627
Feb9125
Mar9529
Apr8827
May6922
Jun3711
Jul237
Aug299
Sep6520
Oct8226
Nov7121
Dec7724

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Cajamarca collects about 2893 mm of rain across 246 wet days — roughly 241 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. March is the wettest month with 495 mm, while July is the driest at just 32 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 44% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450500550JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec359430495314158583243167278243317
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan35927
Feb43025
Mar49529
Apr31427
May15822
Jun5811
Jul327
Aug439
Sep16720
Oct27826
Nov24321
Dec31724

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Cajamarca, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around April 30 and lasts for 4.8 months, ending around September 22. The clearest month is July, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 73% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 23 and lasts for 7.2 months, ending around April 29. The cloudiest month is March, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 98% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAug 5 · 74%Mar 10 · 2%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan892
Feb397
Mar298
Apr1684
May4258
Jun6535
Jul7327
Aug7129
Sep4159
Oct1882
Nov1486
Dec1189

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. The longest day, around January 1, brings about 12 h 24 min of light; the shortest, around May 22, only 11 h 36 min — a swing of roughly 0 h 48 min.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.46:126:35
Feb12.26:226:36
Mar12.06:226:25
Apr11.86:196:09
May11.76:206:00
Jun11.66:276:02
Jul11.66:316:08
Aug11.86:256:11
Sep12.06:096:07
Oct12.25:546:04
Nov12.35:496:09
Dec12.45:586:23

Sunny days

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

Cajamarca averages about 4 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 0 and 14 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 4.2 months, from around May 11 to Sep 16. The sunniest month is August, with roughly 11 sunny days (mixed).

The greyest month is February, down near 0 sunny days — about 100% fewer than the August peak.

05101520JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedbrightAug 114 daysFeb 30 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb0Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr1Gloomy
May4Gloomy
Jun10Mixed
Jul12Mixed
Aug11Mixed
Sep4Gloomy
Oct1Gloomy
Nov2Gloomy
Dec1Gloomy

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.

In Cajamarca, the air stays dry or comfortable essentially all year. Even in January, the muggiest month, it feels humid or worse only about 0% of the time — humidity is not something you need to plan around here.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdry
Dry (%)
Jan100
Feb100
Mar100
Apr100
May100
Jun100
Jul100
Aug100
Sep100
Oct100
Nov100
Dec100

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 Cajamarca is steady company: average speeds sit near 4 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmAug 2 · 6 km/hFeb 28 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan4calm
Feb4calm
Mar4calm
Apr4calm
May4calm
Jun5calm
Jul6calm
Aug6calm
Sep5calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec4calm

Hazard calendar for Cajamarca

In seasonPeak

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

Cajamarca's rainy season runs October–April, when most of the year's rain falls.

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

Best time to visit Cajamarca

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around mid June, Cajamarca is still near the start of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds not yet at full swing.

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 Cajamarca for general outdoor tourist activities is from early June to early September, with a peak score in the last week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 31 · 6.9

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
Jan3.3poor
Feb3.1poor
Mar3.0poor
Apr3.3poor
May4.3fair
Jun5.8good
Jul6.6good
Aug6.4good
Sep4.5fair
Oct3.6fair
Nov4.0fair
Dec3.7fair

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 Cajamarca for hot-weather activities is from mid July to late August, with a peak score in the first week of August.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 5 · 2.8

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 Cajamarca, 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.

Cajamarca packs about the same all year — highs hold near 19°C. Across the year the things worth having are a warm layer, rain gear and sun protection.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In August, Cajamarca sees daytime highs around 19°C and nights near 7°C. Worth packing: a warm layer, rain gear and sun protection. About 9 days see rain.

UV index (midday) in Cajamarca 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 Cajamarca peaks around February 16 at about 19 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 22 at about 12 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeFeb 16UV 19Jun 22UV 12
UV index (midday)Level
Jan18Extreme
Feb19Extreme
Mar18Extreme
Apr15Extreme
May14Extreme
Jun12Extreme
Jul12Extreme
Aug13Extreme
Sep15Extreme
Oct17Extreme
Nov16Extreme
Dec15Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Cajamarca

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 9 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 7.5 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)
Jan8.57
Feb97.5
Mar8.57
Apr8.56.5
May86
Jun7.55.5
Jul7.55.5
Aug86
Sep86.5
Oct8.57
Nov8.57
Dec8.57

Air quality in Cajamarca 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 Cajamarca is worst in November — around 15 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 1.8× the cleanest month (July, 8 µg/m³).

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

01020JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecGoodModerateGoodModerateNov 1615 µg/m³Jul 158 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan11Good
Feb12Good
Mar12Moderate
Apr12Moderate
May11Good
Jun9Good
Jul8Good
Aug10Good
Sep14Moderate
Oct12Good
Nov15Moderate
Dec12Good
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Cajamarca 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. Cajamarca banks about 1,008 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around August.

02505007501,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan86
Feb82
Mar90
Apr86
May89
Jun81
Jul83
Aug93
Sep83
Oct78
Nov74
Dec82

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.

Cajamarca receives about 5.5 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.9 and 6.2 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseNov 206.2 kWhMar 184.9 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan5.4Bright
Feb5.1Bright
Mar4.9Bright
Apr5.0Bright
May5.0Bright
Jun5.1Bright
Jul5.3Bright
Aug5.8Bright
Sep5.9Bright
Oct6.0Bright
Nov6.3Intense
Dec5.8Bright

Where is Cajamarca?

Cajamarca sits at 7.2°S, 78.5°W, 2,700 m above sea level, in Peru. The nearest listed city is Huamachuco, 85 km away.

San Pedro de LlocLaredo

Topography around Cajamarca

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Cajamarca has significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 450 m around an average of 2,723 m above sea level; within 16 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 2,410 m; within 80 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 4,163 m.

The land around Cajamarca is covered by artificial surfaces (45%) and cropland (42%) within 3 km, grassland (53%) and cropland (31%) within 16 km, and grassland (67%) within 80 km.

3 km
450 m
16 km
2,410 m
80 km
4,163 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrain
Nearby: Huamachuco 85 km · Chepén 102 km · Chocope 106 km · Paiján 109 km · Guadalupe 109 km · Chongoyape 114 km · San Pedro de Lloc 115 km · Laredo 115 km

Peru travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type A / B / C
220 V · 60 Hz
Prices
≈ 51% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$9,684
2025
Happiness
6.0 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
49%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
8.6
per 100k, 2021
Road deaths
13.6
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Upper middle
World Bank
English
Moderate
EF EPI 519
Religion
Catholic 76%Evangelical Christian 16%no religion 5%other religions 3%

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 Cajamarca (-7.1638°, -78.5003°, elevation 2,700 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. 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).