Places where the middle of winter is cool, dry walking weather rather than cold or wet. 365 towns and cities that draw visitors in North America were scored in January, and 85 rate Good or better. The ten below lead, spread across the region.
Where to go
- 191 · IdealSanta MonicaCalifornia, United States
Rated 91 (Ideal) for active outdoors in January: midday feels like 15°C, with mostly clear skies. Good weather here runs from mid September to early July, so there is room either side. Rain is rare at this time of year. See mid January on the map.
- 289 · IdealTempeArizona, United States
Midday in January feels like 13°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 89, Ideal, for active outdoors. The good spell lasts about four and a half months, from mid November to March. Rain is rare at this time of year. Open it on the map at mid January.
- 388 · IdealSan DiegoCalifornia, United States
Midday in January feels like 15°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 88, Ideal, for active outdoors. Good weather here runs from mid October to mid June, so there is room either side. See mid January on the map.
- 483 · IdealSanta CruzCalifornia, United States
A typical midday in January feels like 12°C, and the Active outdoors rating averages 83 over the stretch. It rates Good or better all year, not just now. Open it on the map at mid January.
- 571 · GoodSan AntonioTexas, United States
Midday in January feels like 12°C under partly cloudy skies, which rates 71, Good, for active outdoors. Good weather here runs from mid November to March, so there is room either side. See mid January on the map.
- 669 · GoodSt. PetersburgFlorida, United States
Rated 69 (Good) for active outdoors in January: midday feels like 17°C, with partly cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about two months, from mid December to early February. Open it on the map at mid January.
- 767 · GoodRockportTexas, United States
A typical midday in January feels like 14°C, and the Active outdoors rating averages 67 over the stretch. Good weather here runs from late November to mid March, so there is room either side. See mid January on the map.
- 866 · GoodSt. AugustineFlorida, United States
Rated 66 (Good) for active outdoors in January: midday feels like 14°C, with partly cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about four and a half months, from mid November to mid March. Rain is rare at this time of year. Open it on the map at mid January.
- 964 · GoodMelbourneFlorida, United States
A typical midday in January feels like 18°C, and the Active outdoors rating averages 64 over the stretch. See mid January on the map.
- 1063 · GoodCluteTexas, United States
Rated 63 (Good) for active outdoors in January: midday feels like 12°C, with partly cloudy skies. The good spell lasts about four months, from late November to mid March. Open it on the map at mid January.
Places with a guide of their own
Ranked the same way, but only among the places that have a guide of their own:
How this list is worked out
The data
Every figure comes from a decade of weather-station observations, blended into one typical year and read at midday, local solar time. Scores here are averaged in January; a city missing a reading for any part of that stretch is left out rather than scored on part of it.
The rating
Active outdoors: A mild feels-like gates the score — best 10–20 °C, cool enough for hiking, cycling and running. Dryness matters most, with a penalty for strong wind. A place is also left out when its typical readings contradict its own rating, for example a high score alongside frequent rain.
The spread
To keep one warm corner from filling the list, entries are at least 150 km apart, no more than three sit within 1,000 km of each other, and no more than three come from one country unless the list would otherwise run short.
Only places that draw visitors
Towns and cities with plenty of hotels, guest houses and holiday lets nearby for their size, or a great many of them in all, counted from Overture Maps Places, an open dataset. That keeps out places the weather favours but nobody travels to. Where two places share one resort or city, the one a visitor would name is kept.
The dotted links open the map at that place and time of year, on the same layer. The map remembers the time of day you last chose there; set it to midday to see these exact numbers.