1. Cape Town — South Africa
Score 100.0Day27.6 °CNight17.1 °CRainy days2
Where to go in February
February keeps January's map and changes almost nothing at the top: all twelve entries reach 100, so the order between them no longer says anything. What moves is in the detail. Ras Al Khaimah gains 2.4 degrees on January to reach 27.8 °C, Tenerife is again the only European name, and Nairobi appears for the first time, in the driest month of its year. The practical question here is not where the weather works — the table settles that — but when to fly. Half-term weeks lift fares and family hotels for a fortnight, then everything falls back, so shifting the dates by a week often saves more than switching destination. One reservation about the distant entries: the score rewards the afternoon, and the East African plateaux call for a jacket as soon as dusk falls.
The ranking for February
2. Stellenbosch — South Africa
Score 100.0Day27.6 °CNight17.1 °CRainy days2
3. Sal — Cape Verde
Score 100.0Day25.1 °CNight19.7 °CRainy days1
4. Sharm El Sheikh — Egypt
Score 100.0Day23.1 °CNight15.8 °CRainy days1
5. Abu Dhabi — United Arab Emirates
Score 100.0Day26.6 °CNight19.0 °CRainy days1
6. Dubai — United Arab Emirates
Score 100.0Day27.0 °CNight18.7 °CRainy days1
7. Ras Al Khaimah — United Arab Emirates
Score 100.0Day27.8 °CNight15.3 °CRainy days3
Three of them in detail
Sal — Cape Verde
Sal records 25.1 °C by day and 19.7 °C at night, with a single day above 1 mm. February is in fact the coolest month of its year, which says enough about how flat the local calendar is: 18 rainy days across twelve months, 110.3 mm in total, and the airport 6 km away.
Nairobi — Kenya
Nairobi reaches 27.5 °C in the afternoon while nights fall back to 16.6 °C, with five rainy days and 23.8 mm. February is the driest month of its year, which is precious in a city logging 150 wet days annually. Wilson airfield is 3 km from the centre, Jomo Kenyatta 12 km.
Dubai — United Arab Emirates
Dubai runs 27 °C by day and 18.7 °C at night with a single rainy day. This is one of only three good months — January, February, December — before the heat shuts the door until the next winter. Hotel rates are at their annual peak, and the main airport is 20 km from the creek.
What to avoid this month
Five European entries, all for much the same reason. Reykjavik piles up 17 rainy days and 151.9 mm. Berlin is the trap of the month: 5.3 °C sounds survivable until you add the 11 days of showers that come with it. Oslo and Stockholm camp at 2.2 °C, Bled at 2.6 °C.
How the score is calculated
One formula, applied identically to the hundred places, on measured station records:
score = 100 − 3·max(0, |tMax − 25| − 3) − 4·max(0, rainyDays1 − 6) − 2·max(0, 12 − tMin)A place is flagged as one to avoid when it records 14 rainy days or more in the month, an average high of 34 °C or more, or an average high of 8 °C or less. Only the five lowest-scoring flagged places are listed.
Updated on 21 September 2026