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Punta Arenas has a subpolar oceanic climate.
Mild winters and warm summers, with no extreme cold — here's what that means in plain terms.
What this climate feels like
The four things a regular visitor actually wants to know:
Highs near 15°C in January.
Lows near −1°C in July.
About 390 mm of rain a year. Wettest in April.
Overcast skies dominate much of the year.
What "subpolar oceanic" means
Climate scientists sort every place on Earth into about 30 climate types, based on how hot, cold, wet and dry it is across the year. Punta Arenas's type — subpolar oceanic — sits in the broad family of mild, temperate climates.
Researchers write climate types as a short letter code. Here is what each letter means:
Cities with the same climate as Punta Arenas
A subpolar oceanic climate (Cfc) — these recognizable cities share it. If you know one of them, you know roughly what to expect.
Punta Arenas sits near a climate boundary
This city's climate sits within about 1.7 °C of the next type along. A slightly cooler or warmer decade could change which side of the boundary it lands on — but the lived weather doesn't change at the line.
Has Punta Arenas's climate type changed?
Stable — Punta Arenas's climate has held the same type between the 1971–2000 and 1991–2020 normals. The label is steady; the climate beneath it is still warming.
What this climate means for you
Hardy greens, potatoes, brassicas and grasses; warm-season crops struggle without polytunnels.
Summer (June–August) is the practical window; even then weather is changeable and rain is frequent.
Cool, damp and grey for much of the year. Heating is constant; AC is unnecessary.
Where these numbers come from
The climate type and the month-by-month figures on this page are computed from Punta Arenas's measured 30-year climate normals (1991–2020) — the same official records behind Punta Arenas's main climate page, so the two always agree.
Long-range climate maps measure things slightly differently and can place a city in a neighbouring category. Where they differ, this page uses the measured station record as the climate today.
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from the WMO's CLINO 1991–2020 collection, measured at Carlosibanezaeropuertopuntaare, about 18 km from the city centre.