MARSA ALAM WEATHER

It almost never rains in Marsa Alam.  It’s not often that you can spot  clouds, even on the horizon. Summers are very hot, but tempered a little by the sea breeze. Late autumn, early spring and winter temperatures are perfect and the Red Sea is comfortably warm year round. With generally cloudless skies, the sunrise over the Red Sea and the sunset over the desert can provide spectacular photo opportunities. For forecasts of the weather for the next few days please use either

• the sixteen day forecast on metcheck.com
• the twenty five day forecast on holiday-weather.com or
• the fourteen day forecast on the BBC website.

or use the climate table a little further down this page for longer term planning.

A FEW GENERAL COMMENTS ABOUT THE CLIMATE

Marsa Alam is one of the southernmost sea resorts in Egypt which also means it is one of the warmest.  It is only 135 miles or 210 km north of the Tropic of Cancer, which means that in late June the sun is almost directly overhead. Fortunately, cooling winds from off the Red Sea usually mean more bearable temperatures than inland. There is, however, little cloud cover – extremely rare in summer and only occasional days of usually light and partial cloud cover in winter.  It usually only rains for one or two days a year and often only very light rain for a short duration.  Every few years a heavier rainfall, lasting an hour or more, can bring considerable disruption to coastal roads and transport, but this is usually only temporary.  In winter the area enjoys much milder night time temperatures than many parts of Egypt which can become surprisingly cold at night.   

EXTREMELY UNUSUAL RAIN EVENTS

Marsa Alam has an arid dry climate and it rarely rains but just occasionally, and more often in the winter months, the heavens open for an hour or more and sometimes the consequent flooding is sufficient to damage roads, vehicles and more rarely hotel infrastructure.

WIND AND CLOUD

The area around Marsa Alam usually has a few days every month with relatively high wind speeds, at least of the type you might describe as a strong breeze.  These are common in winter, but not infrequent in summer either.    These winds can generate some dust but don’t worry,  it’s very unusual to get the sort of sand storm that you might have seen in Hollywood movies.  Nevertheless the wind can make it dangerous to swim and hotels should then post red flags on their beaches.

There are also occasionally times when you can have some patchy cloud cover for a few days and in summer this can lead to an unwelcome increase in humidity. 

However the silver lining is that when windy and cloudy conditions combine, there are great sun sets, providing the sun is still visible through any slight cloud formations as in the picture below taken at Al Nada Resort, Marsa Alam.

SUNSET OVER THE DESERT

MAGICAL CLOUD PATTERNS AFTER A WINDY DAY

DREAMS BEACH MARINA BATTERED BY STRONG WAVES