Monaco weather and the best time to visit

The year is dry in summer and top-heavy in autumn

Monaco reads as a Mediterranean climate and behaves like one, but the autumn end of it is stronger than most people expect. July takes 24 mm and August 29 mm; October takes 106 mm and November 128 mm. That is more than four times the summer figure, and it does not arrive as weeks of grey - Mediterranean autumn rain comes in short, heavy bursts between clear days.

May to September averages 20-27 C by day and is the stretch this page picks. July and August sit at the top of the comfortable band at 27 C, with nights at 20-21 C; September holds 23 C by day and 17 C at night while the sea is still at its warmest, and takes 65 mm.

Winter is mild, not warm

January and February average 11-12 C by day and 5 C at night. That is mild enough that nothing closes and cold enough that the terraces are not the point - a Monaco winter is a walking and indoors proposition rather than a coastal one. There is no month here that averages below 5 C at night, which is the difference between this coast and almost anywhere inland at the same latitude.

The practical read: if the sea matters, June to September. If it does not, April, May and October each give 17-20 C by day with far fewer people, and October's rain, heavy as the monthly total looks, falls on a minority of days.