Weather

The climate in Sicily is typically mediterranean with very hot summers and short, mild winters. Nevertheless in recent years, as a result of global climate change, even Sicily has experienced periods of unstable weather which were unheard of prior to the 1980's. Today the weather appears to be becoming more tropical in nature characterized by brief downpours and a general increase in average temperatures, in particular during the spring and autumn. The weather also varies more from year to year which makes it difficult to produce accurate statistics based upon the temperature records of recent years. Despite this fact, Sicily still has hot summers with relatively little rainfall and quite stable weather from the middle of June until the middle of September. During this period the average daytime temperature near to the coast ranges from 28 to 34 degrees centigrade, however, this can rise to between 38 and 40 degrees centigrade for brief periods when the Scirocco wind blows from North Africa. The Scirocco is, however, a very dry wind which makes the temperature feel slightly lower than it actually is. In the hilly and mountainous internal areas of the island the daytime temperature may be similar to or slightly higher than the temperature in the the coastal areas, however, at night the temperature in the internal areas is much lower than in the coastal areas which nevertheless normally benefit from a sea breeze. In some areas, often the houses located directly on the coast remain cool even in the height of summer as a result of the sea breeze. Generally some differences in temperature do exist according to the local area and in particular between the north and south and east and west of the island. Generally speaking, the north-east of the island is a little cooler than the north-west and south of the island where there is also less rainfall. In recent years a new phenomenon of very localised rainfall ("leopard spots") has been experienced whereby there may be very heavy rainfall in one area but, at the same time, another area only a few kilometres away is completely dry. The weather in winter is decidedly mild with minimum temperatures ranging from 8 to 12 degrees centigrade and maximum temperatures of between 16 and 20 degrees centigrade, excluding mountainous areas at an altitude of more than 800 to 1,000 metres which can experience snowfall (sometimes heavy) during the period from mid-December to mid-March. We have published details of average temperatures from 2000 to 2005 which are purely statistical in nature, however, by clicking on the link below you are able to obtain details of the weather in real-time.