Key takeaways
- Daytime highs sit between about 20 and 23 degrees in every month of the year.
- From about 10 degrees in the southern summer down to around 4 in July.
- A wet season around the southern summer and a dry one through the middle of the year.
- A clay trail and a dirt road behave very differently wet.
A climate with no summer and no winter
The first thing to understand about Sucre is that the temperature is almost the same all year. The station near the city records daytime highs of 20.7 in January, 20.4 in July, 22.7 in October: a spread of barely two degrees across the entire calendar.
That is what a tropical latitude at altitude does. The sun angle changes very little through the year, so the heat does not, and what people call the seasons here are about water rather than about temperature.
Remember also that this is the southern hemisphere. January is the height of the southern summer and July is midwinter, which is the opposite of what a European or North American visitor instinctively assumes.
It also explains something visitors find odd about the city itself. Sucre has no summer wardrobe and no winter one: the same clothes work in February and in July, with the only real adjustment being how much you add after dark. Bolivians in the highlands dress in layers for exactly this reason and shed or add them through the day rather than through the year.
The daily range is the real one
What does move, and considerably, is the difference between day and night. In January the average low is 10.5 degrees against a high of 20.7. In July it is 4.1 against 20.4.
So the practical experience of Sucre is a warm and often brilliant day and a cold evening, all year round, with the gap widest in the middle of the year. Anyone who packs for the daytime figure alone will be uncomfortable after dark.
This is entirely normal for a dry highland climate: thin air holds little heat, and once the sun goes the warmth goes with it very quickly.
The wet season
Roughly November through March, at its heaviest in the southern summer. The station records 114 millimetres in January and 134 in February, which are the two wettest months of the year here.
Rain in this part of Bolivia typically arrives as heavy afternoon storms rather than as all-day drizzle. Mornings are frequently clear and the sky closes in later, which is one reason a tour that walks in the morning is sensibly scheduled.
The landscape is at its greenest then, and the crater floor at its most productive. It is not an unattractive season; it is simply a wetter one.
One practical note about the figures on this page. The rainfall record for this station is complete only for the wettest months, so the numbers quoted here are January and February rather than a full year. The shape of the season is not in doubt, and rather than fill the gap with figures from a station somewhere else, the missing months are simply left out.
Hard highland light across the dry crater floor
The dry season
The middle of the year, broadly May to September. Rainfall drops away sharply, the skies are reliably clear, and the nights are at their coldest.
This is the walking season and the one most visitors are advised towards. Dry ground on a stone road, dry dirt on the access track, long clear views across the crater, and no realistic prospect of the day being altered by weather.
The trade is the cold mornings and the dust, neither of which is a serious objection.
It is worth adding that dust is a real feature of the dry months rather than a footnote. The access road is unpaved and a vehicle in front of you raises a great deal of it, which is one small argument for a private vehicle over a shared one, and a reason to keep a camera in a bag rather than round your neck on the drive in.
What rain does to this particular trek
Two things, and the second matters more than the first. Wet stone paving on a descent is slippery, which slows the walking and asks for more care underfoot.
The larger issue is the road. Access to the crater is by unpaved track, and heavy rain can make parts of it difficult. A tour is far more likely to be affected by what the rain has done to the ground than by rain falling on the day.
Operators run through the wet season and adjust. Ask about conditions when you book in January or February rather than assuming, and keep a spare day if you can.
This is also why a trip built around a single fixed day is more fragile in the wet months than in the dry ones. Nothing about the tour is dangerous in the rain, but a road that has been rained on for a week is a road with an opinion, and having a second possible date in your itinerary removes the whole problem.
The sun, in every season
It is intense in all twelve months. Altitude thins the atmosphere and the tropical latitude keeps the sun high, so ultraviolet exposure is severe even in the coolest, cloudiest part of the year.
The cool air is what fools people. You do not feel hot, so you do not cover up, and the burn arrives anyway.
Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, every month. This is the single most repeated piece of advice about the Bolivian highlands and it is repeated because visitors keep ignoring it.
Which month to come
If you want reliability, the dry middle of the year. Clear skies, dry ground, and the least chance of anything being altered.
If you want the landscape green and do not mind an afternoon storm, the shoulder months either side of the wet season. April and October are frequently the best compromise available.
If your dates are fixed in January or February, come anyway and build in flexibility. The tour runs, the crater is at its most alive, and you may simply need a second option for one afternoon.
