Jordan Climate

For travelers contemplating a trip to Jordan, the climate and time of year play a significant role in your trip planning considerations. In brief, Jordan has hot, dry summers, and wet, relatively cold winters. The peak season is between March till May, and from September to November, though summers are nowhere as hot as in the Gulf.

Jordan is a relatively small country, with an area of around 100,000 square kilometres, and has three distinct climatic zones. The largest of those is of course desert, which covers around 80% of the country. The western mountain heights is where most of the cities, towns and archaeological sites reside, while the Jordan Valley, averaging around 300 metres below sea level, has an entirely different climate than the rest of the country.

Jordan has four distinct seasons; winter and spring are relatively short, while summers are long, dry and relatively hot. The low humidity means that even temperatures in the low thirties are bearable. Jordan does not get the extreme heat that the gulf countries are accustomed to, and temperatures rarely go over 35 degrees Celsius even in the peak of summer.

Nights are relatively cool in all the highlands. Jordan averages about 310 days of sunshine per year. The rainy season starts at the end of November and continues into March. Snow occasionally falls in Petra, Amman and some of the western mountain ranges during December- February.