Where Is Warm in April? 16 Dry Places and Where the Dry Season Ends

Which places are warm and dry in April?

Sixteen places pass our test in April: an average daytime high of at least 24°C and rain on no more than one day in ten, over eleven years of daily weather. A rain day is a day with at least two millimetres of rain (four in the tropics), so the limit is about three rain days in the month. March had twenty-seven, so April is the month the list gets short: thirteen places leave and only Da Nang and Los Angeles arrive.

The dry list is now Cape Verde, Dubai, Goa and Mexico, and the high column matters: a 33°C day in Goa is a different working day from a 27°C one in Cape Verde. The thirteen that left are Thailand's Chiang Mai, Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Hua Hin, Ho Chi Minh City, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala and Cartagena as their rains start, and Santiago and Lima as the southern autumn takes their highs under 24°C.

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What changes between March and April?

Rain days climb across Asia while the heat peaks. Chiang Mai goes from about 1 to about 4 of 30 days with rain and Bangkok from about 4 to about 7, while Phuket doubles and Ho Chi Minh City goes from about 1 to about 6. Da Nang is the exception that improves.

The pattern is pre-monsoon weather. Afternoon thunderstorms build through April, ahead of the south-west monsoon, which usually reaches the Andaman Sea and southern Vietnam in May. That is why "Thailand is dry until May" is a half-truth: by April the reliably dry weeks are over in Phuket, Koh Samui, Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, even if the heat is the loudest thing you notice.

Is Thailand too hot in April?

For most people working from a room, yes. Chiang Mai's average high is 35°C and its low 23°C, so there is little relief at night.

The other April trap in Chiang Mai is the air. Burning season fades from its March peak, but it is not over until the first proper rains. Our burning season guide has the weekly numbers.

Songkran, around 13 to 15 April, turns Thai cities into water fights. It is fun for a day and a bad week to have deadlines. Many nomads leave for the beach or stay indoors with air conditioning.

Is Vietnam warm and dry in April?

Central Vietnam holds up; the south and north do not. Da Nang is the better April base: warm, with rain on fewer than one day in ten and the sea warming up. Nha Trang, further south on the same coast, is on the list too. Ho Chi Minh City is as hot as in March and the afternoon storms are back, and Hanoi has warmed up but remains damp and grey.

Is Bali drier in April?

Drier in millimetres, but not dry. Uluwatu loses more than half of its March rain and Canggu a quarter of it, and the rain days fall to about a third of the month or less, but that is still 9 to 11 rain days. If a dry Bali is the goal, May is better and the middle of the year better still; our Bali rainy season guide shows the whole curve.

Where should I spend a month in April?

Mild and dry: Cape Verde. A 27°C high and almost no rain. It is the best match if you want warm without sweating.

Hot and dry: Dubai and Goa. Both are dry, but at 33°C you will be indoors in the afternoons. Goa has its last dry month here; the first pre-monsoon showers usually arrive in May and the monsoon in June.

Mexico: Puerto Escondido and Mérida. Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast and Mérida in the Yucatán are both dry. Inland Mexico City is warm and still dry, with its rainy season about to start in May.

What about the Southern Hemisphere and Europe?

The south is cooling into autumn. Perth sits at 25°C but now has rain on about 4 of 30 days and misses, and Cape Town at 22°C is under our line, though its rain is light.

Europe is a shoulder month: none of these places reaches 24°C, though Seville is close. Athens, Crete and Cyprus are drier than in March but cooler than our line. They suit people who want to leave Asia's heat and rain and still work outside in a jacket.

Medellín stays mild but not dry: it gets rain on about 20 of 30 days in April.

Looking ahead? May is when Europe warms up and Asia turns wet.

Planning more than April, or need to dodge smoke, heat or rain? Pick your months and what to avoid and get your 3 best places, with the numbers.

How we built this list

Daily weather history from the Open-Meteo archive (temperatures and rain days) and monthly rain totals from CHIRPS (satellite and rain-gauge data; Canggu keeps Open-Meteo totals because CHIRPS reads too wet there against the Denpasar airport rain gauge) are grouped into month-of-year averages for each destination's coordinates over eleven years. A place is listed if its average April high is at least 24°C and rain falls on at most one day in ten, ordered by fewest rain days and then by the warmer high. A rain day is a day with at least two millimetres of rain, four in the tropics; drizzle alone does not count. On small trade-wind islands such as Barbados the model is known to miss rain, so treat their rain-day shares as a floor (the CHIRPS monthly totals do not have that problem); on Maui it may run the other way, since the model's grid box near Kihei reaches up the slopes above the coast. It does not know prices, crowds, visas, festivals or air quality. See our data sources page for the method and open any destination page for the range across the month.

Want hot rather than warm in April?

This guide ranks places by dryness. If you want the highest daytime heat instead, with humidity beside it, see the hottest places in the world by month.