September 11, 2026
Bogotá’s weather is decided by two things a visitor cannot see from the forecast: the altitude, which fixes the temperature at about 14 degrees all year, and the eastern hills, which decide how much it rains on the street where your hotel is. The city’s own description is a homogeneous climate with no seasons, and by the thermometer that is true: IDEAM’s 1991 to 2020 normal for the airport gives highs between 18.5 and 20.2 degrees and lows between 6.4 and 9.6 in every month of the year. What changes is the rain, and it changes twice: by the calendar, with two wet seasons and two drier ones, and by the map, because the plain in the west gets 644 millimeters a year and the hills above La Candelaria and Chapinero get 1,184 to 1,351. This is what we tell our own guests before they pack: the month-by-month table from IDEAM’s airport station, which side of the city is wet and why, the shape of a Bogotá day from the cold morning to the four o’clock rain, what the 2026 El Niño outlook changes, and what to wear at 2,640 meters.
What the altitude does to your first day is in our Bogotá altitude guide; the rest of the country, month by month, is in our best-time guide.
The short version
Every month in Bogotá is a cool spring day with a cold night: highs of 18 to 20 degrees, lows of 6 to 10, an average of 14. The rain comes in two seasons, April to May and October to November, which between them carry half of the airport’s 877 millimeters a year, and it eases from December to February, the sunniest months, and again from June to September on the plain. Where you sleep matters more than the month: Bosa in the southwest gets 644 millimeters a year, the airport 877, IDEAM’s Carrera 10 station near La Candelaria 1,093, and the stations in the eastern hills 1,180 to 1,350, with July as their wettest month rather than their driest. Rain here is an afternoon habit, an hour or two from about three, and the mornings are the reliable part of the day. The 2026 outlook is a strong El Niño by IDEAM’s September forecast, which means less rain than the table promises through early 2027, and drier, sunnier and colder-at-night days in the capital. Pack layers, a rain shell, a hat and sunscreen, and plan the outdoor things for the morning.
The numbers, month by month, from IDEAM’s airport station
The table is IDEAM’s 1991 to 2020 climatological normal for the El Dorado airport station, at 2,547 meters on the western edge of the city: rain in millimeters, the average number of days with rain, the average daily high and low in degrees, and the hours of sunshine per day. The year adds up to 877 millimeters on 120 days, a mean temperature of 13.9 degrees and 4.2 hours of sun a day, with relative humidity between 71 and 79 percent.
| Month | Rain | Days | High | Low | Sun |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33 | 5 | 20.1 | 6.4 | 5.8 |
| February | 51 | 7 | 20.2 | 7.6 | 5.5 |
| March | 83 | 11 | 19.8 | 8.6 | 4.2 |
| April | 117 | 13 | 19.5 | 9.6 | 3.4 |
| May | 109 | 14 | 19.4 | 9.6 | 3.1 |
| June | 57 | 10 | 18.9 | 9.1 | 3.9 |
| July | 49 | 10 | 18.5 | 8.6 | 4.1 |
| August | 44 | 9 | 18.8 | 8.4 | 4.2 |
| September | 57 | 9 | 19.2 | 7.8 | 4.0 |
| October | 108 | 12 | 19.4 | 8.3 | 3.8 |
| November | 107 | 12 | 19.4 | 8.6 | 4.0 |
| December | 61 | 8 | 19.8 | 7.5 | 4.8 |
Read the table in three bands. December to February is the dry, bright season: 33 to 61 millimeters a month, five to eight days with rain, the most sun of the year, five and a half to six hours a day in January and February, and the coldest nights, with January’s average low of 6.4 the lowest number on the page. April, May, October and November are the two wet seasons, 107 to 117 millimeters each, twelve to fourteen days with rain and three to four hours of sun. June to September is the second, quieter dry spell on the plain, 44 to 57 millimeters, cooler by day than the rest of the year because July and August have the lowest highs. March and December are the hinges between them. The temperature line barely moves: the difference between the warmest month’s high and the coldest month’s high is 1.7 degrees.
Which side of the city you sleep on
The number most weather pages do not have is the one that matters in Bogotá: the rain doubles from west to east across the city. IDEAM’s 1991 to 2020 normals put Bosa, on the flat southwest, at 644 millimeters a year on 104 days; the Fontibón waterworks at 792; the airport at 877; the Cerro de Suba in the northwest at 968; IDEAM’s Carrera 10 station in the center, a few blocks from the Plaza de Bolívar and the hotels of La Candelaria, at 1,093 on 125 days; Vitelma and Juan Rey on the slopes of the southeast at 1,184 and 1,175; and El Verjón, in the eastern hills above the city at 3,250 meters, at 1,351. The hills do it: the eastern range catches the air that crosses the plain and wrings it out, so La Candelaria, Chapinero Alto and anything with a view of Monserrate live in a wetter climate than Salitre, the airport or the west, and the number you see in most forecasts for Bogotá is the airport’s. The hills also change the calendar. At the airport July is a dry month with 49 millimeters; at El Verjón it is the wettest month of the year with 167, at Juan Rey 148 and at the Delirio station at 3,000 meters 176, because the mid-year winds that dry the plain arrive loaded on the mountain. If you are staying in the historic center or on the slopes of Chapinero, expect rain in June, July and August that the city’s averages do not predict, and expect Monserrate’s summit to be in cloud on many mid-year afternoons when the plain below is dry. The right day and hour to go up, with the 2026 prices, are in our Monserrate guide.
The shape of a Bogotá day
The day starts cold and clear and ends wet and dark, and it does so all year. Dawn is around six, the coldest hour, with the airport’s average lows between 6 and 10 degrees; the sun is up by seven and by nine the jacket is in the bag. The middle of the day is the warm part, the 18-to-20-degree highs of the table, and at 2,640 meters the sun in that window burns faster than it feels, cloudy or not. Cloud builds over the eastern hills after lunch, and the rain, when it comes, usually comes between about three and six in the afternoon, sometimes as a short hard shower, in the wet months as an hour or two of steady rain that stops traffic; the evening clears or does not, and by eight the temperature is heading back to ten. Sunset is within a quarter of an hour of six o’clock all year, because the city sits close to the equator, which is also why the days are nearly the same length in January and July. The practical version: outdoor things in the morning, museums and lunch in the middle, a car rather than a walk after three in April, May, October and November, and a warm layer for any evening.
Two wet seasons, two dry ones, and what each is for
December to February is the season for the things that need a sky: Monserrate at sunset, the Sunday ciclovía, the day trips to Guatavita and Villa de Leyva, the páramo, and the photographs. It is also high season for Colombians, with the holidays running from mid-December to mid-January, so the day trips are fuller and the city is emptier. March is a good month that nobody books. April and May are the first rains: the mornings still work, the afternoons need a plan, and the hills are green. June to August is the plain’s second dry spell and the hills’ wettest stretch, with the mid-year school holidays around the end of June and the start of July; it is the coolest part of the year by day and a fine time for the city itself. September is a hinge. October and November are the second rains and the wettest afternoons of the year in the center, when the day trips still run but the mud on the Guatavita and Chingaza trails is real. Nothing on this calendar is a reason not to come; it is a reason to put the right thing in the right month and the right hour.
The 2026 twist: El Niño
IDEAM’s September 10, 2026 outlook gives a probability above 90 percent of a very strong El Niño event in the last quarter of 2026 and the first of 2027, and a 75 percent probability that it is the most intense since 1950, with the World Meteorological Organization putting its persistence to February 2027 at close to certainty. For the Andean region, IDEAM’s expected effects are less rain than normal, higher temperatures, low rivers and reservoirs and a higher risk of fires and heat. For a visitor to Bogotá that means the October and November rains of the table are likely to be lighter than the averages, the December to February dry season drier and sunnier still, and the nights colder, because clear skies at 2,640 meters lose their heat fast; it also means the páramo trails are more likely to be open and dry and the reservoirs the city drinks from lower. We refresh this paragraph when IDEAM publishes its monthly update.
What to wear at 2,640 meters
Layers, and the same layers every month: a T-shirt for the middle of the day, a sweater or fleece for the morning and the evening, a light waterproof shell that lives in the bag, a hat, sunscreen, and shoes that do not mind a wet cobble. Bogotanos dress for the cold end of the day, not the warm one, and so should you; many of them never carry an umbrella, because the rain has an hour and the shell does the job. For the day trips add a warmer layer for Guatavita and Zipaquirá, both above the city, and boots and a real rain jacket for the páramo, where it can rain at any hour and the wind makes it feel far colder than the number. In the dry months the sun is the hazard, not the rain: the sunscreen the city’s health secretariat asks visitors to use every day is the one item people forget at this altitude.
Rain, hail and what closes
Bogotá’s rain is rarely dangerous to a visitor and often inconvenient: a hard afternoon shower floods the low streets for an hour, the taxi that took twenty minutes takes an hour, and the cable car at Monserrate keeps running unless the operator decides otherwise for maintenance or equipment. Hail falls occasionally on the plain and melts in minutes. What the rain closes is not the city but the day trips’ trails: the Guatavita walk goes on in rain, in a group, on steps; the páramo hikes go on in rain by definition; a flooded track can delay a return from Villa de Leyva. Our drivers watch the afternoon and start the day trips early for that reason, and on the wettest days we swap the order of a day rather than cancel it.
What we do differently, and what we cannot promise
We plan Bogotá days by the clock and not by the calendar: the outdoor hour in the morning, the museums and the coffee in the middle, the car after three in the wet months, and the day trips leaving early enough to be back before the afternoon rain on the plateau. We tell you which side of the city your hotel is on and what that means for the umbrella. What we cannot promise is a dry afternoon in April or October, or a clear summit at Monserrate on a July afternoon; what we can promise is that the morning is the reliable part of a Bogotá day, all year, and that our days are built around it. The rest of the city, from where to stay to the days the museums close, is in our Bogotá guide.
Questions travelers ask
What is the best month to visit Bogotá?
December to February for the sun, with January and February the sunniest at five and a half to six hours a day by IDEAM’s airport station, and the driest afternoons; the trade-off is the Colombian holiday season from mid-December to mid-January. March and June to August are the quiet good months.
What is the rainy season in Bogotá?
April to May and October to November, each about 107 to 117 millimeters a month at the airport and 12 to 14 days with rain, with the rain usually in the afternoon. In the eastern hills June to August is wet too.
How cold does Bogotá get?
Average lows of 6 to 10 degrees all year, coldest in January at 6.4 at the airport; highs of 18 to 20. A sweater in the morning and evening, every month.
Does it rain all day in Bogotá?
Rarely. The pattern is a clear morning, cloud after lunch and rain for an hour or two from about three; in the wet months the afternoon rain lasts longer and floods the low streets briefly.
Is Bogotá’s weather the same all year?
The temperature is: the difference between the warmest and coldest months’ highs is 1.7 degrees. The rain is not: December to February is dry and bright, April to May and October to November are wet.
Which part of Bogotá gets the most rain?
The east, against the hills: about 1,093 millimeters a year at IDEAM’s station near La Candelaria and up to 1,351 in the eastern hills above the city, against 644 in Bosa and 877 at the airport in the west.
What does the 2026 El Niño mean for a trip to Bogotá?
By IDEAM’s September outlook, less rain than the averages from late 2026 into early 2027, more sun, and colder nights. The dry season is likely to be drier; the wet season lighter.
Plan it with us
Write to us on WhatsApp with your dates and where you are staying and we will build the days around the mornings, or start with our Bogotá tours page.
Sources
The facts on this page were checked on September 11, 2026 against the following sources: IDEAM’s 1991 to 2020 climatological normals on datos.gov.co, stations Aeropuerto El Dorado, Bosa, Acueducto Fontibón, Cerro de Suba, Sede IDEAM Kra 10, Vitelma, Juan Rey, Delirio and El Verjón; IDEAM’s press room for the September 10, 2026 El Niño outlook; the Alcaldía de Bogotá’s general information page for the city’s own description of its climate; and the Secretaría Distrital de Salud’s recommendations for visitors for the sunscreen advice. The description of the daily cycle and of what the rain closes is our team’s experience and is written as such.
