🌞Planning a trip to Mexico City? Here's what to expect weather-wise

There's a reason we adopted Mexico City's "Eternal Spring" nickname for our book, newsletter, and YouTube channel about it—the weather is hard to beat.

Mexico City sunset

When you close your eyes and imagine Mexico, your mind may conjure up a sandy beach on the ocean and perhaps a drink with a little umbrella. Well, shake that image out of your mind, as it has nothing to do with Mexico City, a landlocked, inland location surrounded by mountains and volcanos.

Mexico City’s unique geography plays a major role in its oddly consistent weather year-round. The mountains protect it from hurricanes and other major weather disasters. And its high altitude—most of Mexico City sits at about 7,400 feet above sea level—ensures that it’s dry and comfortable year-round, with almost no humidity or extreme weather. (By comparison, Denver—famously, the “mile high city”—sits at about 5,300 feet above sea level like the fraud that it is.)

Many European capitals challenge visitors with heat waves in the summer high season and bitter cold in the dead of winter. But this is not a concern with Mexico City, where the average high temperatures range from 72 to 78 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year, and low temperatures range from 44 to 56 degrees. It’s mild almost the entire year, but the warmest months are April and May, while the coolest are December and January.

Take a look at New York City, the biggest city near our home in Pennsylvania: There are very high temperatures in the summer and very low temperatures in the winter. This is the type of climate we both experienced growing up near Boston, and it’s what you’ll see in places like Berlin, Madrid, and Paris in Europe.

Reforma’s skyscrapers in Mexico City at dusk.

But this is not the experience in Mexico City. The temperature swings are gentle curves, not giant hills and valleys. Mexico City has consistently good weather year-round.

Of course, climate and weather aren’t just about the temperature. You should also consider precipitation, the number of sunny and cloudy days, humidity, and more. Overall, Mexico City performs well compared to other big cities in North America or Europe.

⚡Climate considerations

There are two climate-related considerations for anyone planning a trip to Mexico City. Neither is a major issue.

☔What about the rainy season?

While Mexico City doesn’t experience the same four seasons we endured growing up in New England, it does have two seasons of a sort, a rainy season that runs (roughly) from June through September, and a dry season during the rest of the year. The rainy season is characterized by days that are typically partly sunny until clouds gather in the late afternoon with rain lasting for short periods of time. The dry season is exactly what it sounds like: Little to no rain and generally blue, cloudless skies all around.

Don’t let the rain deter you. We’ve been in Mexico City all throughout the year, and while we have experienced a few dramatic rainfalls, that’s not the norm. There’s no reason to avoid the rainy season. In fact, you may want to embrace it, as we do: The pollution that can hang heavy over Mexico City in the dry season disappears when it rains, cleaning the air and providing our lungs with some relief.

❄️Doesn’t it get cold at night?

The second consideration is that Mexico City, like any dry place, can experience wide temperature shifts in a single day. This is typically only an issue in what we still think of as winter. In December, January, and February, you will wake up to pleasantly cool temperatures in the low 50s, heat up in the middle of the day with the direct sun and a high temperature in the low 70s, and then feel the chill at night when the temperatures drop into the high 40s. That’s a 30-degree temperature shift in a single day, so you may have to pack a light sweater or jacket. The horror.