Cyprus sea temperature, month by month

The question I get asked most before a beach holiday is when you can swim without freezing. For Cyprus, the answer fits in a table, as long as you trust the source. Most websites that quote sea temperatures don’t say where the numbers come from, so I went to the raw data from NOAA, the US ocean and weather agency, and read the 1991-2020 averages off five stretches of the Cypriot coast. Rain, heat and the rest are in Cyprus weather.

Where the numbers come from

NOAA’s OISST v2.1 dataset blends satellite, ship and buoy measurements to estimate sea surface temperature on a grid of quarter-degree cells, roughly 25 km across. Its PSL laboratory publishes the average for each month over 1991-2020. I took the sea cell closest to Larnaca, Limassol, Paphos, Ayia Napa and Polis and rounded to one decimal place. Two honest caveats. This is open-sea temperature, not the shoreline, and a sheltered cove can be a touch warmer in summer. And it’s a thirty-year average, not a single year, so a hot summer can run a degree above it.

When is the sea warmest in Cyprus?

August, without question. The average runs from about 27.1 °C off Limassol to about 28.0 °C off Polis. July and September are very close, above 26 °C on every coast. From June to October, five months in a row, the sea stays above 23 °C, which for me is the line for comfortable swimming. If warm water is your priority, that’s the window, and I set it against heat, rain and flight schedules in the best time to visit Cyprus.

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The coldest month, and winter

The low comes in February, with around 16.5 °C off Polis and 16.7 to 16.8 °C elsewhere. January and March are only a few tenths warmer. What’s striking is that in those months the sea is nearly as warm as the air at its daytime peak, which the WMO puts at around 17.7 °C in Larnaca and Paphos in February. For most of us that’s not bathing weather, more a bracing dip for the brave.

October and November, the surprise

Here’s the part of the data I find most useful. In October the sea sits at around 24.6 to 25.3 °C, almost the same as in June, while daytime highs fall to about 28 °C in Larnaca and 27 °C in Paphos. In other words, early-summer water with far less heat. In November the sea is still around 22 °C, barely a degree below the average daytime high. There’s more on that in Cyprus in October, handy for half-term planning.

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June or September?

It’s the classic question for anyone with flexible dates, and the data settles it. September’s sea is between 2.4 and 3.1 degrees warmer than June’s on every coast, because it carries the whole summer’s heat. In Larnaca it goes from 23.8 °C in June to 26.9 °C in September, and in Ayia Napa from 24.1 to 27.1 °C. If you’re travelling with children or hate a cold first plunge, I’d pick September.

Which coast has the warmest water?

The differences are tenths of a degree, but there’s a pattern. In summer the west and south-east warm up slightly more, with Polis and Ayia Napa ahead in August, and Limassol the coolest of the five. In winter it flips a little, with Limassol and Paphos holding a few tenths more than Polis. To pick a beach with this in mind, see Cyprus beaches. If diving’s your thing, spring and autumn water changes the experience a lot, as I explain in diving in Cyprus.

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How I’d use it

For a pure beach holiday, late June to early October. To mix beaches with sightseeing without the worst of the heat, late September and October, which also lines up nicely with the October half-term. And be careful with May, because the air is already warm while the sea, at around 20 °C, is still fresh. If you’re flying out over the Easter holidays, pack for sunshine on land rather than long swims, since April water averages only around 18 °C.

Once your dates are set, check which hotels are still free in Ayia Napa before prices climb.