Where Is Warm in February? 22 Dry, Sunny Places

Which places are warm and dry in February?

Twenty-two of the places we track pass a simple test in February: an average daytime high of at least 24°C and rain on no more than 45% of days. The table is ordered driest first, then warmest. "Rain days" is the share of February days with recorded rain, averaged over ten years, so a place can pass with a few short showers and still be a good place to work outdoors.

The top of the list is not the tropics. Santiago has the fewest wet days because February is the middle of a long, dry Mediterranean summer there. The tropical entries (Tamarindo, Hua Hin, Ho Chi Minh City, Chiang Mai) are there because February sits inside their dry season. Goa is missing on purpose: its stored February figures contradict each other (rain on 67% of days, but only 0.2 mm in the month), so we leave it out until that is fixed. In March it reads 24% of days and 33.5°C, which is the more believable picture.

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What is the best base for sun and a normal working week in February?

Three places stand out if you want calm, predictable weather.

Santiago gives a 29°C high with cool nights of about 17°C, so you can sleep without air conditioning and still work in a café in the afternoon. Rain is close to nil (7.7 mm for the month). The catch is that it is a large city, not a beach.

Cape Town is the other southern-summer pick: a 26.8°C high, an average low of 17°C and 5 mm of rain. It is also peak holiday season, so the thing to plan around is prices, not weather.

Tamarindo is the beach version: a 32.5°C high, 24.5°C nights and 3.1 mm of rain in the whole month. It is the hottest of the three, so expect to put outdoor time in the morning.

Is Thailand good in February?

Mostly yes, but the answer changes by region. The north is dry and sunny, the Gulf is in its calmest stretch, and the Andaman coast is dry too. What changes by the end of the month is the air in the north.

Chiang Mai is the textbook case for why one "good weather" label misleads. Our weather numbers look excellent: a 30.3°C high and rain on 22% of days. Rain is not the problem. Smoke from crop and forest burning builds across the north in the late dry season. These are monthly averages of PM2.5 from the air-quality model for the last four seasons.

Read it for the pattern, not the exact level. In every season February is above the WHO guideline, and March is higher in all four. 2024 was the lightest year. We cover the full week-by-week picture in our Chiang Mai burning season guide. The practical take: go early in February and plan the exit before March, rather than arriving at the end of the month.

If you want Thailand without that risk, the coasts are the standard answer.

Hua Hin is the driest at 19% of days. Totals stay modest across the board, and February is the middle of peak season on the islands, which shows up in prices and crowds rather than weather.

Is Bali a bad idea in February?

For weather, yes, and the data is unusually clear. Canggu has rain on 95% of days in February with about 396 mm for the month. Uluwatu is the same (94% of days, 366 mm) and Lombok is worse still (98% of days, 486 mm). Rain tends to arrive in heavy bursts rather than all-day drizzle, but with that many wet days you will lose part of most weeks.

Bali is not bad every month; it peaks at the opposite end of the year. If you are already there and committed, leave for a dry month elsewhere and come back from April. For a February base, compare it with Chiang Mai (before the smoke), Santiago or Costa Rica above. Our Bali rainy season guide covers the full year.

Siargao and Mauritius are no better: rain on 96% and 95% of days. The equatorial island belt is wet at this time of year.

Are Madeira, the Canaries and southern Spain warm in February?

Not by a 24°C standard. This is the commonest mismatch between "sunny Europe in winter" and the numbers. Madeira's average high is 15.4°C with 52 mm of rain, and the Canary Islands reach 18°C with rain on 50% of days. Málaga is 16°C and Seville 17°C.

These are good for a cool, bright winter without harsh cold, and for cheap flights home. They are not beach places. If your plan is shorts and swimming, the right answers are in the first table.

What about Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean?

Mexico City is dry (27% of days) but its high of 22.6°C is under our warm line and nights fall to 7.9°C, so it is a light-jacket city after dark. Mérida in the Yucatán gets a 29.2°C high with rain on 24% of days. The Caribbean coast is damper: Tulum has rain on 47% of days and Playa del Carmen 42%, though totals are small (23 mm and 29 mm), which usually means short showers. On the Pacific side, Puerto Escondido (18% of days, 30.7°C) is the better bet.

Africa and the Indian Ocean in February

Diani Beach on the Kenyan coast is hot (31.5°C) and just misses our dry line, with rain on 49% of days but only 10 mm in the month, so the showers are light. Zanzibar's Paje is similar (30.6°C, 42% of days, 49 mm). Both turn wetter in March. Cape Town is the dry exception on this side of the world.

So where should you go in February?

Pick by what you are trying to avoid. To avoid rain, choose Santiago, Cape Town, Tamarindo or Puerto Escondido. To avoid smoke and keep Thai food and prices, choose Hua Hin or the Andaman coast over Chiang Mai from mid-February. To avoid crowds, skip peak-season islands and look at Mérida. And do not choose Bali, Lombok, Siargao or Mauritius for weather.

February is a pivot month: the northern tropics are at their best and about to turn smoky or hot, and the southern places are at their best and about to cool. Our March version of this page shows how quickly that changes, and the January list shows where February is a step up or down.

How we built this list

Daily weather history from the Open-Meteo archive is grouped into month-of-year averages for each destination's coordinates, over ten years. A place is listed if its average February high is at least 24°C and rain falls on at most 45% of days. The page does not know about prices, crowds, visas, festivals or, apart from the Chiang Mai table, air quality. Averages hide bad years, so open the destination pages for ranges before booking anything you cannot cancel. The method is on our data sources page.