NAZARÉ · AUGUST · 39.6° N
Nazaré in August runs 70.2°F by day and 63.0°F at night, with 0.42 inches of rain across the whole month. The Atlantic in front of the town averages 61.4°F. That pairing, mild afternoons over a sea that never really warms, is the character of a Nazaré summer, and it catches out Americans who booked a beach week expecting Algarve water.
What the date gives you is length and dryness: 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight on August 15, sunset at 20:34 local, fewer than two days of measurable rain in an average month. What it takes back is company on the sand and, oddly, warmth in the water: the sea here runs 2.3°F colder in August than in July.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · NAZARÉ · AUGUST
August brings the warmest air of the Nazaré summer at 70.2°F and the coldest water of the three peak months at 61.4°F, so come for long dry evenings rather than for easy swimming.
HIGH 70.2°F · SEA 61.4°F · 0.42 IN OF RAIN · 1.8 WET DAYS · HIGH SEASON
Go for: clifftop walking at Sítio, a beach day that rain almost never cancels, and an evening that still has light in it at nine.
Think twice before: promising the family swimming weather. At 61.4°F the sea is a dip, not a pastime, and the big-wave season at Praia do Norte is winter.
Air: IPMA 1991–2020, station 531 Cabo Carvoeiro · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine, 2015–2024 · full sources at the end
On this page
- Average highs, lows and rain daysNazaré weather in August
- Sea temperature in August61.4°F, and what that feels like
- Crowds, booking and the lodging taxHow busy August gets
- Things to do in AugustPraia da Nazaré, Sítio and the fort
- A two-day plan around the lightThe 48-hour itinerary
- August or July or September?How the three months compare
- Is August worth the trip?The verdict, for and against
Every figure here comes from one thermometer, and it helps to know where it stands: IPMA’s station 531 at Cabo Carvoeiro, 32 meters above the water at Peniche, on the same exposed run of coast as Nazaré. Go inland or uphill and the readings change, colder and a great deal wetter. Treat the normals below as coastal ones, and check our packing guide before any day in the hills.
Nazaré weather in August: average highs, lows and rain days
| Measure | Nazaré in August |
|---|---|
| Average high | 70.2°F (21.2°C) |
| Average low | 63.0°F (17.2°C) |
| Precipitation | 0.42 in |
| Days with 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 1.8 |
| Days with 10 mm (0.39 in) or more | 0.1 |
| Sea surface, 2015–2024 | 61.4°F (16.3°C) |
| Daylight on August 15 | 13h 45m |
IPMA, the Portuguese national weather service, puts August at 70.2°F by day and 63.0°F by night in its 1991–2020 normals for station 531, Cabo Carvoeiro. That is a real instrument at 32 meters on the coast, not a reanalysis grid cell averaging ocean and hillside together, and on a shoreline the difference shows up most in the overnight lows.
Rain barely registers: 0.42 inches for the month, spread over 1.8 days that record at least 1 mm (0.04 inch). A genuine soaking of 10 mm (0.39 inch) or more turns up 0.1 times in an average August, so call it one August in ten. One caution on the arithmetic: IPMA counts to metric thresholds, while US tables usually start their wet days at 0.10 inch, so the two sets of counts are not interchangeable.
Only 7.2°F separates the average high from the average low, so the night never drops away the way an inland August night does. It turns breezy instead. A light windbreaker and one long sleeve cover the clifftop at Sítio after dark, and that is the entire evening wardrobe. Nothing here calls for the heavy-heat kit you would pack for the Alentejo in the same week.
August 15 carries 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight, with sunrise at 06:49 and sunset at 20:34 in local summer time (05:49 and 19:34 UTC). Dinner at nine still begins in blue light, which leaves the promenade usable long after the beach has emptied.
Can you swim in Nazaré in August? Sea temperature and what it feels like
The water off Nazaré averages 61.4°F in August, from the Open-Meteo Marine API over 2015–2024. Read the small print on that number: it is the mean of daily maxima, the warmest reading of each day, so it sits a shade above what a 24-hour average would show. The all-hours figure is a touch cooler than 61.4°F, never warmer.
At 61.4°F you can swim, and plenty of people do. In practice that means a sharp breath at waist depth, ten or fifteen minutes of real pleasure, then the decision to come out and find the towel. Children last less than adults. Anyone planning an hour in the water, or a surf lesson, wants a wetsuit, since this coast reads close to these numbers all year rather than warming into a Mediterranean August.
We found no wind or wave series for August, so we give no speeds and no heights. What holds is the geography: this is open Atlantic, the breeze builds with the afternoon, and the morning is usually the calmer half of a beach day. The giant waves that made the town famous belong to winter. Tow-in surfing at Praia do Norte happens in the cold months, and an August visitor gets the headland without the spectacle.
How busy is Nazaré in August? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
August sits at the top of the Portuguese and wider European holiday calendar, and a small fishing town feels that more sharply than a city does: one beach, one funicular, several times the people. On money we have to stop short. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate data for Nazaré, so we crown no month expensive and name none the cheapest. The calendar fact stands on its own: these are high-season dates.
Book earlier than you would for Lisbon in the same week. We could not verify lead times for this town, so take the following as judgment rather than measurement: the bed stock is small, weekends tighten before midweek, and family rooms facing the ocean go first. If your dates are fixed, secure the room before the flight. If the flight is fixed and the room refuses to appear, our where-to-stay guide covers the fallback bases along this stretch of coast.
On the municipal lodging tax, we could not verify a rate for Nazaré, so we give no per-night figure. Portuguese town halls differ on whether they levy one at all, on the nightly amount, on the cap in nights and on the exempt ages. Ask the property at booking whether a tax applies and whether it is already inside the quoted total.
The single upgrade that changes this month is location. A room within walking distance of Praia da Nazaré means the car gets parked once and forgotten for two days, and in the first half of August that is worth paying for. The rest scales gently. The sand is free, the viewpoints above it are free, and 0.42 inches of rain will not push you into a ticketed attraction to stay dry.
Things to do in Nazaré in August
With 0.42 inches of rain spread over 1.8 wet days, a clifftop walk planned three days out will usually happen as planned, and that is the month’s real gift. September delivers 0.99 inches over 4.1 wet days on the same normals, which is a different kind of planning altogether. Add 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight and the day holds a beach morning, a long lunch and a headland evening without anything being rushed.
Down at sea level, Praia da Nazaré is the broad town beach under the cliff, with the promenade running its length. The funicular climbs from the top of that promenade to the Sítio quarter above. Up there sit the Suberco viewpoint over the whole bay, the sanctuary of Nossa Senhora da Nazaré on its square, and the walk north to the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo, the red lighthouse fort overlooking Praia do Norte.
None of those places move with the season. The air does. August’s 70.2°F high sits 8.8°F above the 61.4°F sea, and that gap explains why the walking is comfortable while the swimming is short. In winter the same headland is a big-wave grandstand, full of camera tripods. In August it is warm stone, a long view down the coast and a beach below that is for walking as much as for water.
Most of what the town does best in August costs nothing: the beach itself, the promenade, the Suberco railing at the cliff edge, the clifftop path out to the fort, and a sunset that lands at 20:34 on the 15th and leaves a whole evening on the far side of it.
Nazaré in August: a two-day itinerary
Day one follows the light. Sunrise at 06:49 makes an early promenade walk easy rather than heroic. Take the beach from about nine to noon, when 70.2°F and a dry sky are exactly what you came for, then eat late and let the strongest sun pass. Ride the funicular up to Sítio around four, walk out toward the Forte de São Miguel Arcanjo, and be back at the Suberco railing by eight for the 20:34 sunset over the bay.
Start day two in the water, early, while the sea is at the daily maximum that the 61.4°F average is built from, and keep it short. Give the afternoon to the north side and the fish market end of town. If you draw one of August’s 1.8 wet days, the inland escape is Óbidos and its walls, and our getting-around guide has the bus and rail options for reaching it.
Nazaré in August vs July and September
| Measure | July | August | September |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 68.9°F | 70.2°F | 69.6°F |
| Average low | 62.4°F | 63.0°F | 62.1°F |
| Precipitation | 0.20 in | 0.42 in | 0.99 in |
| Days with 1 mm (0.04 in) or more | 0.9 | 1.8 | 4.1 |
| Sea surface, 2015–2024 | 63.7°F | 61.4°F | 62.9°F |
Side by side, the three months sit closer together than the holiday calendar suggests. August takes the warmest air, 70.2°F against 68.9°F in July and 69.6°F in September, and the coldest water, 61.4°F where July gives 63.7°F and September 62.9°F. Rain separates them properly: 0.20 inches over 0.9 wet days, then 0.42 over 1.8, then 0.99 over 4.1. All three air columns come from the same IPMA station and period. The sea figures in all three come from the marine API over 2015–2024.
Shift four weeks earlier and July hands you 2.3°F more sea and half the wet days for 1.3°F less afternoon air, which is the best trade on the board for a swimming trip. Shift four weeks later and September costs you 4.1 wet days against 1.8 and more than doubles the monthly rain, while the water recovers 1.5°F to 62.9°F.
Is August a good time to visit Nazaré?
Yes, if your week is built on long evenings, clifftop walking, and a sea you dip into between hours on the sand. It is one of the most reliable dry stretches of the Portuguese year on this coast. No, if the trip was sold to the family as swimming weather. At 61.4°F the Atlantic here is a cold-water proposition in the middle of summer, and the brochure photographs never mention it.
If the answer came out no, go in July instead. On these normals it is the driest of the three months, 0.20 inches over 0.9 wet days, and the warmest water at 63.7°F, and the whole cost is 1.3°F off the afternoon air. For the rest of the country’s calendar, our 12-month verdict sets Nazaré against the Algarve and the Douro in the same weeks.
One combination belongs to August alone here: the warmest air normals of the three summer months, 70.2°F, married to 13 hours 45 minutes of daylight on the 15th and a sunset at 20:34 that gives back the whole evening.
The last word
Decide on the water first, then book the bed. If 61.4°F reads as a dip rather than a plan, August in Nazaré is a fine week and the sky will not argue with you: 0.42 inches across the month. One number to carry to the reservation page, since it decides how you sleep more than the daytime figures do: August nights are the mildest of the three summer months at 63.0°F, against 62.4°F in July and 62.1°F in September, so a window that opens toward the ocean beats air conditioning. Ride the funicular up to Sítio on the first evening, not the last.
Sources & data for this guide
- August air normals, 70.2°F high, 63.0°F low, 0.42 in · IPMA, climatological normals 1991–2020, station 531 Cabo Carvoeiro, 32.0 m · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Wet-day counts, 1.8 days at 1 mm and 0.1 day at 10 mm · IPMA, same station and period. Thresholds are metric, not the 0.10-inch cutoff used by US tables · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Sea surface 61.4°F, mean of daily maxima 2015–2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Daylight of 13h 45m on August 15, sunrise 05:49 UTC and sunset 19:34 UTC, converted to local summer time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 24, 2026
- July and September normals · IPMA, same station and period. Their sea figures come from the Open-Meteo Marine API, 2015–2024, a different source and a different period from the air normals · checked Sep 24, 2026
- Station scope: these readings are taken at Cabo Carvoeiro, on the same exposed coast, and do not describe higher or inland ground, which is colder and considerably wetter.
- We could not verify a municipal lodging-tax rate, an occupancy or room-rate series, or the funicular and fort fares for Nazaré, so we quote none of them. Ask operators when you book.