ERICEIRA · SEPTEMBER · THE MONTH GUIDE
Ericeira in September keeps the shape of a summer month without quite the heat of one. The official normals put the average high at 80.2°F, the average low at 63.3°F and the whole month’s rain at 1.41 inches. That is a cliff-top town where the afternoon asks for a swimsuit and the evening asks for a sweater, and where rain falls on fewer than four days in an average month.
August runs 84.2°F by day and 0.20 inch of rain for the whole month. October drops to 72.7°F and 4.05 inches. September sits between them, much closer to August on temperature. The gap that matters is water: 1.41 inches is roughly a third of October’s total.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ERICEIRA · SEPTEMBER
September gives Ericeira 80.2°F afternoons, 63.3°F nights and 1.41 inches of rain, the last month of the year with summer daytime numbers and fewer than four wet days.
IPMA NORMALS 1991-2020 · STATION 579, 103.9 M · 3.7 RAIN DAYS · SUNSET 7:45 P.M. ON SEP 15
Go for: beach afternoons at 80.2°F, cliff walking between the town beaches, and a month averaging 1.41 inches of rain against October’s 4.05.
Think twice before: counting on a dry fortnight. An average September carries 1.3 days of 0.39 inch or more, and we could not verify a sea-surface temperature for Ericeira, so we quote none.
Climate: IPMA 1991-2020, station 579 · Daylight: sunrise-sunset.org · full sources at the end
On this page
- Ericeira weather in September80.2°F days, 1.41 inches, 3.7 wet days
- How warm it gets, morning and afternoonA 16.9°F swing, and what we know about the water
- Crowds and prices in SeptemberWhat we can show, and what we could not measure
- Things to do in Ericeira in SeptemberPescadores, Ribeira d’Ilhas, Foz do Lizandro
- A two-day plan built around the lightSunrise 7:17 a.m., sunset 7:45 p.m.
- September vs August and October4.0°F cooler than August, 2.64 inches drier than October
- Is September a good time to visit?Yes for outdoor days, no for a dry guarantee
Every figure here comes from one place: IPMA’s 1991-2020 climate normals, read at station 579, Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m above sea level. That is a real thermometer rather than a reanalysis grid cell, and it is the nearest official one rather than a gauge in Ericeira itself. The station sits inland at Lisbon’s airport while the town takes the Atlantic head on, so treat the numbers as the regional signal and the wind off the water as the local correction.
Ericeira weather in September: average highs, lows and rain days
| September at Ericeira | IPMA normal, 1991-2020 |
|---|---|
| Average high | 80.2°F |
| Average low | 63.3°F |
| Rain for the month | 1.41 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 3.7 |
| Days with 0.39 in or more | 1.3 |
| Daylight on Sep 15 | 12 h 29 min |
Read the pair together and the month becomes easy to dress for: 80.2°F in the afternoon, 63.3°F before dawn, both from the same IPMA series and the same thirty-year window. Neither figure is a record or a forecast. They are the middle of three decades, so a warm September week and a cool one both live inside them without making the month unusual.
Rain shows up on 3.7 days in an average September, roughly one day in eight. Of those, 1.3 clear 0.39 inch, the kind of fall that ends a beach afternoon rather than interrupting it. Both counts use IPMA’s own thresholds, 1 mm and 10 mm, not the 0.10-inch bar American tables use, so the two sets of numbers do not swap one for one. A monthly normal says nothing about when in the day the water arrives, so check the three-day forecast before you commit a beach morning.
Those two temperatures sit 16.9°F apart, and on an exposed coast the wind does the rest. A fleece or a light shell for the evening is not optional in a month with summer afternoons, and the same layer covers an early walk down to check the surf. Our packing guide works through the rest of the list for a coastal trip.
On September 15 the sun comes up at 7:17 a.m. and goes down at 7:45 p.m. local time, 12 hours 29 minutes of daylight according to sunrise-sunset.org. That is enough for a full beach day that still ends with dinner in the light, and short enough that the last usable hour lands around seven. Walk the cliff path late in the afternoon and you get the town’s west-facing side at the right moment.
How warm is Ericeira in September?
Two numbers anchor the month: 80.2°F in the afternoon and 63.3°F at night, 16.9°F apart. That spread sits between August’s 18.9°F, from 84.2°F down to 65.3°F, and October’s narrower 13.9°F between 72.7°F and 58.8°F.
In practice that means two outfits in one day, not two wardrobes. A morning on the cliff path is shirt-and-fleece weather with an onshore breeze, and by early afternoon the fleece is in the bag and the swimsuit is the point. Eating outdoors works on most September evenings, though a table on the sheltered side of a terrace beats one in the wind.
Freezing nights do not belong to this month at this latitude, with the average low at 63.3°F, and the IPMA September normals for the station carry no frost count we could read. As for the water, we could not verify a sea-surface series for Ericeira, so no ocean temperature comes from us. If you find one elsewhere, check whether it averages daily maxima, since that runs warmer than a true 24-hour mean, and check whether it describes the open coast or a sheltered bay.
How busy is Ericeira in September? Crowds and prices
We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Ericeira, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive. The calendar is plainer. September follows the European summer holidays rather than sitting inside them, and it keeps most of summer’s daytime warmth, 80.2°F against August’s 84.2°F.
For booking, that argues for treating the first half of the month like August and the second half like a shoulder week, and for locking a room around four to six weeks out (est.) if you want a specific place rather than any place. No lead-time data sits behind that range, only the ordinary arithmetic of a small town with a short list of beds. Our Portugal cost guide sets the wider budget.
We could not verify a nightly tourist-tax rate for Ericeira, so no percentage and no per-night amount come from us. Ask the property directly before you pay a balance, and read the fee line on the confirmation rather than the headline rate.
Spend the extra on location rather than on square footage. A room within walking distance of the sand means a wet hour costs you nothing more than a coffee, while a room up the hill turns every change of plan into a parking decision. If you are driving anyway, our car guide covers tolls and insurance, and getting around Portugal handles the bus and train side.
Things to do in Ericeira in September
September lets you plan an outdoor day and mostly keep it. With 1.41 inches spread over 3.7 days, the odds sit on your side in a way October’s 4.05 inches and 8.3 wet days cannot match, and the afternoons still reach 80.2°F. The month also runs 4.0°F cooler than August, and that shows on a cliff path with no shade.
The beaches line up in an order you can work through on foot and by short drives: Praia dos Pescadores below the old fishing quarter, Praia do Sul and Praia de São Sebastião on either side of the town, Ribeira d’Ilhas north along the coast road, and Foz do Lizandro at the river mouth to the south. We could not verify parking counts, access fees or lifeguard dates for any of them, so we quote none of those figures.
What September changes at those beaches is the air above them rather than the water in front of them. A river mouth and an open Atlantic beach barely notice the calendar from one month to the next, while the afternoon air gives up 4.0°F from August and another 7.5°F by October. The same walk one month later comes with more than double the wet days, 8.3 against 3.7.
Most of what you will do here costs nothing. The cliff path, the beaches, the viewpoints over the harbor and the fish landing carry no ticket, and neither does the 7:45 p.m. sunset from the western edge of town. We found no dated September event we could verify for Ericeira, so we name none and would rather you checked the town’s own calendar when you arrive.
Ericeira in September: a two-day itinerary
Day one works with the light. Getting up for the 7:17 a.m. sunrise is optional, but a nine o’clock walk down to Praia dos Pescadores puts you on the sand while the air is still near its 63.3°F overnight mark. Beach or a surf lesson until one, a long lunch out of the midday sun, then the cliff path north in the late afternoon once the 80.2°F peak has passed. Dinner at 8 p.m. lands just after the 7:45 p.m. sunset.
Day two takes the car or the bus: Foz do Lizandro in the morning for the wide sand at the river mouth, Ribeira d’Ilhas after lunch to watch the surf. If the month’s 1.3 days of heavy rain land on you, swap the afternoon for a day inland, with Sintra and Lisbon both reachable and both mostly indoors when they need to be. We could not verify current bus timetables or fares to either, so check them the evening before.
Ericeira in September vs August and October
| IPMA normal, 1991-2020 | August | September | October |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 84.2°F | 80.2°F | 72.7°F |
| Average low | 65.3°F | 63.3°F | 58.8°F |
| Rain for the month | 0.20 in | 1.41 in | 4.05 in |
| Days with 0.04 in or more | 1.0 | 3.7 | 8.3 |
Across the three months the temperature line falls gently and the rain line does not. Days go 84.2, 80.2 and 72.7°F, a loss of 4.0°F into September and 7.5°F more into October. Rain goes 0.20, 1.41 and 4.05 inches: seven times more water in September than in August, and nearly three times more again in October. Wet days follow the same curve at 1.0, 3.7 and 8.3.
Shift four weeks earlier and you buy 4.0°F of afternoon and a nearly rainless month, paying for it in August’s crowds and prices, neither measured in our sources. Shift four weeks later and you save nothing we can prove while giving up 7.5°F and taking on 4.6 more wet days. For a trip built around being outside, that trade is one-sided. Our August page runs the same numbers from the other side.
Is September a good time to visit Ericeira?
Yes for most people, with one condition. If the trip is beach afternoons, surfing, cliff walking and eating outdoors, September delivers 80.2°F days, 3.7 wet days and light until 7:45 p.m., with the top of August’s heat already off. If the trip requires a guaranteed dry fortnight, no month on this coast sells that, and September is not the exception.
When the answer is no, the month to prefer is August rather than October. Its 0.20 inch of rain and 1.0 wet day come as close to a guarantee as these normals get, at the cost of 4.0°F more heat and a busier town. October is the one to avoid for an outdoor-first trip, at 4.05 inches and 8.3 wet days.
What September has that neither neighbor offers is the combination: summer afternoons at 80.2°F, fewer than four wet days, and a sunset late enough to eat dinner by.
The last word
Book the room you can walk to the sand from, then stop reading monthly averages about a week out and start reading the three-day forecast. One number worth carrying: September nights sit at 63.3°F, only 2.0°F below August’s 65.3°F, while the afternoons give up twice that. The drop happens in the daytime, not overnight, so the evening layer you would have packed for August is exactly the one you need here. For the rest of the country’s calendar, our month-by-month verdict is next door.
Sources & data for this guide
- September highs, lows, precipitation and rain-day counts · IPMA, climate normals 1991-2020, station 579 Lisboa Gago Coutinho, 103.9 m · checked Sep 23, 2026
- August and October figures used in the comparison · same IPMA 1991-2020 series, same station · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sunrise 7:17 a.m., sunset 7:45 p.m. and 12 h 29 min of daylight on September 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, computed in UTC and converted to local time · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Scope caveat: the station is inland at Lisbon’s airport, not in Ericeira. Coastal exposure and sea breeze move the local reading, and higher ground inland is colder and wetter.
- We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Ericeira, so we call no month cheap or expensive.
- We could not verify a nightly tourist-tax rate, a sea-surface temperature series, beach parking or access fees, or any dated September event, so we quote none.
- The four-to-six-week booking range is our estimate, not a measured figure.