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Warmest sea temperatures in the world in January: ranked by sea temperature

Palopo tops the list at 30 °C in January. Ranked from 1991–2020 climate normals across 50 destinations in the world.

Top three in January: Palopo (30 °C) , Honiara (30 °C) , Funafuti (30 °C) . Between first and 50th place the sea temp differs by 1.2 °C.

# Destination Country Sea temp Avg high Avg low Rainfall Wet days Sunshine Sea temp
1 Palopo Indonesia 30 °C 29 °C 23 °C 397 mm 28 275 h 30 °C
2 Honiara Solomon Islands 30 °C 29 °C 25 °C 355 mm 28 284 h 30 °C
3 Funafuti Tuvalu 30 °C 28 °C 27 °C 366 mm 24 290 h 30 °C
4 Kendari Indonesia 30 °C 30 °C 24 °C 309 mm 29 311 h 30 °C
5 Baubau Indonesia 30 °C 29 °C 25 °C 303 mm 28 307 h 30 °C
6 Probolinggo Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 25 °C 288 mm 28 263 h 29 °C
7 Pasuruan Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 23 °C 364 mm 29 263 h 29 °C
8 Kupang Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 25 °C 283 mm 27 291 h 29 °C
9 Taiping Malaysia 29 °C 29 °C 23 °C 198 mm 23 302 h 29 °C
10 Surabaya Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 25 °C 285 mm 29 282 h 29 °C
11 Mahajanga Madagascar 29 °C 30 °C 24 °C 419 mm 28 280 h 29 °C
12 Beira Mozambique 29 °C 31 °C 24 °C 205 mm 19 338 h 29 °C
13 Parepare Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 290 mm 28 285 h 29 °C
14 Padang Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 23 °C 329 mm 23 273 h 29 °C
15 Bukit Mertajam Malaysia 29 °C 30 °C 23 °C 168 mm 20 304 h 29 °C
16 Gorontalo Indonesia 29 °C 30 °C 24 °C 165 mm 23 320 h 29 °C
17 Port Moresby Papua New Guinea 29 °C 30 °C 24 °C 234 mm 22 298 h 29 °C
18 Mata-Utu Wallis and Futuna 29 °C 28 °C 26 °C 357 mm 26 303 h 29 °C
19 Yaren Nauru 29 °C 28 °C 27 °C 193 mm 17 328 h 29 °C
20 Sitiawan Malaysia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 229 mm 26 305 h 29 °C
21 Ambon Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 26 °C 165 mm 23 312 h 29 °C
22 Sorong Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 305 mm 27 272 h 29 °C
23 Balikpapan Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 266 mm 27 277 h 29 °C
24 Situbondo Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 467 mm 30 276 h 29 °C
25 Apia Samoa 29 °C 30 °C 25 °C 377 mm 28 311 h 29 °C
26 Semarang Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 375 mm 29 262 h 29 °C
27 Makassar Indonesia 29 °C 27 °C 24 °C 457 mm 29 216 h 29 °C
28 Mamoudzou Mayotte 29 °C 28 °C 26 °C 234 mm 22 319 h 29 °C
29 Paya Terubong Malaysia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 113 mm 15 308 h 29 °C
30 Ungaran Indonesia 29 °C 27 °C 22 °C 492 mm 30 249 h 29 °C
31 Cairns Australia 29 °C 29 °C 25 °C 245 mm 21 328 h 29 °C
32 Moroni Comoros 29 °C 30 °C 26 °C 264 mm 23 332 h 29 °C
33 Toliara Madagascar 29 °C 31 °C 25 °C 199 mm 18 362 h 29 °C
34 Bengkulu Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 23 °C 294 mm 26 278 h 29 °C
35 Jepara Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 510 mm 30 270 h 29 °C
36 Pekalongan Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 413 mm 30 260 h 29 °C
37 Pago Pago American Samoa 29 °C 27 °C 25 °C 357 mm 26 315 h 29 °C
38 Tegal Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 451 mm 30 268 h 29 °C
39 Pemalang Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 418 mm 30 264 h 29 °C
40 Kapar Malaysia 29 °C 29 °C 23 °C 232 mm 21 297 h 29 °C
41 Shah Alam Malaysia 29 °C 29 °C 22 °C 217 mm 21 301 h 29 °C
42 Bontang Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 249 mm 26 277 h 29 °C
43 Kampung Baru Subang Malaysia 29 °C 29 °C 23 °C 235 mm 21 296 h 29 °C
44 Dili Timor Leste 29 °C 30 °C 25 °C 252 mm 27 304 h 29 °C
45 Townsville Australia 29 °C 31 °C 25 °C 212 mm 16 336 h 29 °C
46 Denpasar Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 25 °C 382 mm 29 290 h 29 °C
47 Yogyakarta Indonesia 29 °C 28 °C 23 °C 336 mm 28 258 h 29 °C
48 Macapá Brazil 29 °C 28 °C 24 °C 271 mm 29 281 h 29 °C
49 Plumbon Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 350 mm 29 263 h 29 °C
50 Cirebon Indonesia 29 °C 29 °C 24 °C 340 mm 29 264 h 29 °C

Monthly values for the month named in the ranking; only destinations with a published climate page are ranked. Download this ranking as CSV.

The same ranking one month earlier and later

December: top 5

  1. Palopo 30 °C
  2. Parepare 30 °C
  3. Baubau 30 °C
  4. Funafuti 30 °C
  5. Probolinggo 30 °C

Full ranking for December

February: top 5

  1. Palopo 30 °C
  2. Taiping 30 °C
  3. Bukit Mertajam 30 °C
  4. Honiara 30 °C
  5. Padang 30 °C

Full ranking for February

How this ranking is built

What is ranked
The average sea surface temperature at the coast, in °C, in January, highest first.
Period
1991–2020 climate normals: the same 30 years for every destination, so the list compares like with like.
Who is included
50 destinations in the world with a published climate page. Neighbouring places that share a climate series are shown once.
Ties
Equal values are ordered by beach score.
Sources
ERA5 / ERA5-Land reanalysis via Open-Meteo; sea temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1. Measured values are reproduced unchanged; only the ordering is ours.

Data sources and method

Normal period
1991–2020
Dataset version
era5-1991-2020-scores1.1
Last processed

Measured values come from ERA5 reanalysis and are reproduced unchanged. Calculated by us: ranking order, beach and comfort scores. Full formulas are on the methodology page.

Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.