Updated August 2026

Warm Places in Europe in February: The 10 Warmest (and Driest) Cities, Ranked

Q: Is it warm enough to swim in the Canary Islands in February?

Air temperatures make it feasible — Las Palmas holds a 18.3°C daytime high and logs 240 comfortable outdoor hours across the month, the most of any city in this ranking. Sea temperature lags air temperature by several weeks in winter, so the water runs cooler than the air suggests; expect a brisk swim rather than a warm one.

Q: Which destination is both warm and dry in February?

Seville is the standout: a 17.4°C daytime high — third-warmest in this ranking — at just 52mm of February rain, down 51% from its own December total of 106mm. Alicante is the driest option outright at 23mm, though 1°C cooler. Las Palmas combines the top temperature (18.3°C) with a modest 45mm.

Q: How does February compare to January in southern Spain?

Southern Spain warms up noticeably: Seville's daytime high climbs from 15.7°C in January to 17.4°C in February, a 1.7°C gain, while rain drops from 69mm to 52mm and outdoor-comfort hours jump from 182 to 215. The Canary Islands move the opposite way — Las Palmas actually cools slightly, from 18.7°C to 18.3°C — because their winter peak sits earlier than the mainland's.

The warmest place in Europe in February is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, with a calibrated daytime high of 18.3°C — but the more useful finding for warm places in Europe in February is how much drier they've become: rainfall is down as much as 51% since December for the same cities. Ranked by daytime high, not the vaguer averages most guides quote, here are the ten best options, spanning the Canary Islands, Cyprus, and mainland Spain.

Open the Map → Compare Cities Side by Side →

The ranking

Warmest European cities in February, ranked

Ranked by daytime high — the peak afternoon temperature, which is what every competitor site means when it quotes a single number for a month. GeoRank's daytime high uses a native ~1 km CHELSA maximum-temperature grid with an ERA5 warming-trend uplift, calibrated to 2011–2025. Monthly mean is shown alongside as a separate, colder number. See the full temperature map for every city, or jump back to December's ranking to see how the order shifts.

#	City	Country	Daytime high	Monthly mean	Sunshine (Feb)	Rainfall	Outdoor hrs
1	Las Palmas de Gran Canaria	Spain	18.3°C	16.6°C	202 hr	45 mm	240 hr
2	Santa Cruz de Tenerife	Spain	17.7°C	15.8°C	186 hr	58 mm	217 hr
3	Seville	Spain	17.4°C	12.4°C	202 hr	52 mm	215 hr
4	Alicante	Spain	16.4°C	12.8°C	180 hr	23 mm	215 hr
5	Larnaca	Cyprus	16.3°C	13.2°C	194 hr	55 mm	221 hr
6	Nicosia	Cyprus	16.2°C	11.5°C	190 hr	61 mm	197 hr
7	Limassol	Cyprus	15.9°C	13.4°C	190 hr	81 mm	213 hr
8	Malaga	Spain	15.8°C	12.8°C	190 hr	62 mm	208 hr
9	Paphos	Cyprus	15.5°C	13.3°C	172 hr	96 mm	197 hr
10	Catania	Italy	15.5°C	11.6°C	196 hr	43 mm	195 hr

The unclaimed angle

Warm and dry: where rain doesn't ruin February

No competitor listicle quantifies this, but the western Mediterranean dries out sharply between December and February: the Atlantic frontal systems that bring December's rain retreat north as a subtropical ridge builds over Iberia and the central Mediterranean. Catania's rainfall falls 55% over the two months, Seville's 51% — bigger than the temperature change over the same period. See the pattern for any city on the rainfall map. See how the month compares across the rest of the season in the five-month winter matrix.

City	December rain	February rain	Change
Catania, Italy	95 mm	43 mm	−55%
Seville, Spain	106 mm	52 mm	−51%
Malaga, Spain	101 mm	62 mm	−39%
Paphos, Cyprus	129 mm	96 mm	−26%
Larnaca, Cyprus	72 mm	55 mm	−24%
Limassol, Cyprus	98 mm	81 mm	−17%
Nicosia, Cyprus	72 mm	61 mm	−15%
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain	68 mm	58 mm	−15%
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain	48 mm	45 mm	−6%
Alicante, Spain	24 mm	23 mm	−4%

Alicante and Las Palmas were already the driest options in December and barely change. The real story is mainland Spain and Sicily, where rainfall roughly halves while daytime highs hold steady or climb — warm, and newly dry, is the wedge no competitor ranking makes.

The surprise entry

Seville: third-warmest by daytime high, invisible by mean

By monthly mean, Seville doesn't stand out — 12.4°C, cooler than every city in Cyprus. Switch to daytime high and it jumps to third place at 17.4°C, ahead of Alicante, Larnaca and the rest of Cyprus. The 5.0°C gap between the two figures is the largest diurnal swing in this ranking — the signature of an inland city far from the sea's moderating effect, where afternoons heat up fast and nights cool just as fast. Compare it against any coastal city on the climate comparison tool.

Combined with 202 sunshine hours — tied for the most here — and just 52mm of rain, Seville is arguably February's best all-round pick, and no competitor ranking lists it. Spain's mainland cities usually trail the Canaries and Cyprus on temperature; Seville is the exception a mean-only ranking would miss.

Head to head

Canary Islands vs Cyprus vs mainland Spain, head to head

Averaged across the cities tracked here, the three regions split on every axis — the Canaries win on temperature, not on rain or outdoor hours.

Region	Daytime high (avg)	Rainfall (avg)	Sunshine (avg)	Outdoor hrs (avg)
Canary Islands (Spain)	18.0°C	52 mm	194 hr	229 hr
Mainland Spain	16.5°C	46 mm	191 hr	213 hr
Cyprus	16.0°C	73 mm	187 hr	207 hr

Mainland Spain is the driest of the three — drier than the Canaries — while only 1.5°C cooler on daytime high. Cyprus is the wettest despite sitting mid-table on temperature. Valletta and Sliema, Malta's two cities, sit outside this ranking at 14.9°C.

Unique metric

How many hours can you actually be outside?

Temperature and rain each tell half the story; GeoRank's Outdoor Hours Index combines them into one comfortable-hours figure, and it reorders the ranking again. Las Palmas keeps the top spot, but Larnaca leapfrogs Santa Cruz de Tenerife into second — decent warmth (16.3°C) and low rain (55mm) beat Santa Cruz's higher temperature but wetter month.

🌳 Outdoor-comfort hours in February, ranked

1Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain240 hr
2Larnaca, Cyprus221 hr
3Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain217 hr
4Seville, Spain215 hr
5Alicante, Spain215 hr
6Limassol, Cyprus213 hr
7Malaga, Spain208 hr
8Nicosia, Cyprus197 hr
9Paphos, Cyprus197 hr
10Catania, Italy195 hr

Full Outdoor Hours Index →

Timing

February vs January in southern Spain

Mainland Spain warms up from January to February while the Canary Islands quietly cool. Seville's daytime high climbs from 15.7°C to 17.4°C as rain drops from 69mm to 52mm and outdoor hours jump from 182 to 215 — the biggest month-over-month move in this dataset. Las Palmas, by contrast, cools slightly, from 18.7°C to 18.3°C — its winter peak sits a month earlier than the mainland's. Run the comparison for any two months on the climate comparison tool, or see the same cities a month earlier on the December ranking.

City	Jan. daytime high	Feb. daytime high	Jan. rain	Feb. rain	Outdoor hrs, Jan → Feb
Seville, Spain	15.7°C	17.4°C	69 mm	52 mm	182 → 215 hr
Alicante, Spain	15.9°C	16.4°C	24 mm	23 mm	202 → 215 hr
Malaga, Spain	15.3°C	15.8°C	66 mm	62 mm	196 → 208 hr
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain	18.7°C	18.3°C	44 mm	45 mm	255 → 240 hr

Methodology

How we measure this — and why our numbers are lower

Two datasets feed this page, on different time periods. The daytime high column — the headline figure — comes from a native ~1 km CHELSA maximum-temperature grid with an ERA5 warming-trend uplift, calibrated against 2011–2025 normals. Monthly mean, sunshine, and rainfall use CHELSA v2.1 and SARAH-3 satellite data, calibrated against 219 WMO reference stations, on the standard 1991–2020 climatology. We label each column separately rather than stamping the table with one date range.

Some February guides quote Gran Canaria at 21°C, or a single Seville average that hides its 5°C diurnal swing entirely. Our calibrated daytime highs trace to a named dataset and a stated correction, not a rounded estimate. Being lower and sourced beats being higher and vague — full detail is on the methodology page.

See February on the map.

Pin your home and compare Las Palmas, Seville and Larnaca side by side on rainfall and outdoor-comfort hours, not just temperature.

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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is the warmest place in Europe in February?

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, with a calibrated daytime high of 18.3°C. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is second at 17.7°C. Seville is the surprise third at 17.4°C — cooler on the mean (12.4°C) but with a large diurnal swing that pushes its daytime high above every Cypriot city. See the full daytime-high map.

Is Malta or Cyprus warmer in February?

Cyprus. Larnaca's 16.3°C daytime high beats Valletta and Sliema, both at 14.9°C. Averaged across Cyprus's four tracked cities (16.0°C), the country is warmer and drier than Malta this month, though neither is as warm as the Canary Islands.

Is it warm enough to swim in the Canary Islands in February?

Air temperatures make it feasible — Las Palmas holds an 18.3°C daytime high and logs 240 comfortable outdoor hours, the most of any city here. Sea temperature lags air temperature by several weeks in winter, so expect a brisk swim, not a warm one.

Which destination is both warm and dry in February?

Seville: a 17.4°C daytime high — third-warmest here — at just 52mm of rain, down 51% from its own December total of 106mm. Alicante is the driest option outright at 23mm, though 1°C cooler. Las Palmas combines the top temperature (18.3°C) with a modest 45mm.

How does February compare to January in southern Spain?

Southern Spain warms up: Seville's daytime high climbs from 15.7°C in January to 17.4°C, rain drops from 69mm to 52mm, and outdoor hours jump from 182 to 215. The Canaries move the opposite way — Las Palmas cools slightly, 18.7°C to 18.3°C — since their winter peak sits earlier. See the November ranking for the season's other end.

About the data: GeoRank is built by a small team that thinks moving abroad shouldn't be guesswork. Daytime highs are calibrated to 2011–2025 normals; monthly means, sunshine, and rainfall use the 1991–2020 climatology. See the methodology for source-by-source detail.

Sources: CHELSA v2.1 (temperature, rainfall) · ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Data Store — daytime-high warming uplift, 2011–2025) · SARAH-3 satellite sunshine data (calibrated against 219 WMO reference stations, 1991–2020). Methodology and accuracy bounds at methodology.