Marseille Vacation Guide

Climate of Marseille

The city has a hot-summer mediterranean climate with cool-mild winters with moderate rainfall, because of the wet westerly winds, and hot, mostly dry summers, due to the dry winds blowing from the Sahara desert at that period.

December, January, and February are the coldest months, averaging temperatures of around 12 °C (54 °F) during the day and 4 °C (39 °F) at night. July and August are the hottest months, averaging temperatures of around 28–30 °C (82–86 °F) during the day and 19 °C (66 °F) at night in the Marignane airport but in the city near the sea the average high temperature is 27 °C (81 °F) in July.

Marseille is officially the sunniest major city in France with over 2,800 hours of sunshine while the average sunshine in the country is around 1,950 hours.[citation needed] It is also the driest major city with only 512 mm (20 in) of precipitation annually, mainly due to the Mistral, a cold, dry wind originating in the Rhône Valley that occurs mostly in winter and spring and which generally brings clear skies and sunny weather to the region. Less frequent is the Sirocco, a hot, sand-bearing wind, coming from the Sahara Desert. Snowfalls are infrequent; over 50% of years do not experience a single snowfall.

The hottest temperature was 40.6 °C (105.1 °F) on 26 July 1983 during a great heat wave, the lowest temperature was −16.8 °C (1.8 °F) on 13 February 1929 during a strong cold wave.