The driest non-polar desert on Earth, on an altiplano where some weather stations have never recorded rain. Daytime highs in the Atacama run from about 16 °C in June to 23 °C in December, an annual range of roughly 7 °C.
Measured against a hiking trip, the conditions hold up January to December. January is the most consistent single month: highs near 23 °C, nights around 10 °C, and roughly 38 mm of rain across the month.
What the Atacama is known for
- The Valle de la Luna's salt formations and the El Tatio geyser field at 4,320 m are the standard pair
- The Atacama hosts ALMA and Paranal, among the most important observatories in the world, because of the sky quality
- Laguna Cejar and the Salar de Atacama support flamingo colonies in hypersaline water
- Altitude, not heat, is the constraint: San Pedro is at 2,400 m and day trips routinely exceed 4,000 m
- The desert bloom, when it happens, follows rare rainfall further south around Copiapo
Month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Precip mm | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23 | 10 | 38 | 6.7 |
| February | 22 | 10 | 39 | 7.2 |
| March | 22 | 8 | 22 | 3.6 |
| April | 20 | 5 | 3 | 0.9 |
| May | 18 | 2 | 4 | 1.3 |
| June | 16 | 1 | 9 | 1.2 |
| July | 16 | 0 | 5 | 1.2 |
| August | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0.9 |
| September | 20 | 3 | 5 | 0.7 |
| October | 21 | 5 | 2 | 0.3 |
| November | 23 | 7 | 0 | 0.2 |
| December | 23 | 8 | 11 | 1.2 |
Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a hiking trip is met across at least half the month.
Open Atacama Desert on the map →
Nearby regions
Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at San Pedro de Atacama, Calama, Toconao and Socaire, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.