August in Seville is hot but workable for visitors willing to move their day around the heat, and a poor fit for anyone planning six straight hours on foot. The mean daily maximum for July in Seville is 36.0°C, or 96.8°F, nearly eight degrees above the round-the-clock average for the same month. August sits only half a degree lower on the AEMET record for Sevilla Aeropuerto, at 35.5°C.
The pattern that works is a Spanish one. Seville Cathedral opens at 9.30am in July and August instead of 10.45am, so the morning goes to the cathedral, and it has to: in those two months the last entry, Giralda included, moves forward to 5pm. Mid-afternoon belongs indoors. The Real Alcázar stays open until 7pm from April through September, which makes it the natural last visit of the day. Nights bottom out around 68.5°F, so a room with working air conditioning is a booking criterion, not a detail.
Is Seville too hot to visit in August?
No, provided the day follows the temperature curve. AEMET normals for the Sevilla Aeropuerto station give August a mean daily maximum of 35.5°C (95.9°F) and a mean minimum of 20.4°C (68.7°F), a fifteen-degree swing. Sightsee in the morning, stay indoors through mid-afternoon and head out again in the evening, when summer hours keep the big monuments open.
Is August in Seville too hot for sightseeing?
August in Seville runs to a mean daily maximum of 35.5°C, which is 95.9°F, and a mean minimum of 20.4°C, or 68.7°F. That fifteen-degree spread is the answer to whether the month is viable: the same calendar day offers two different climates, and which one a visitor meets is decided by the hour rather than the date.
These figures are climate normals that the AEMET calculates for its weather station at Sevilla Aeropuerto, 34 metres above sea level, over the 1981 to 2010 reference period. They are thirty-year averages, not forecasts, so an individual afternoon can and does run well past them; they describe the shape of the season rather than its ceiling. And because the station sits at the airport, open ground on the edge of the city, the old town’s stone streets will not read exactly the same. For a specific trip, the AEMET forecast for the city the day before is what decides whether the cathedral’s first 9.30am slot is worth booking.
July and August are the only two months of the year in which Seville clears a 35°C mean maximum. May stops at 27.2°C and April at 23.4°C, so a traveller who has been to Andalusia in spring has not experienced the same city. July’s mean temperature of 28.2°C is the wrong number to plan with: it averages all twenty-four hours, dawn included, and sits 7.8 degrees below the 36.0°C mean maximum, which is the one that describes the afternoon.
What to see before 2pm
Start with Seville Cathedral, because it is the first to shut its doors on you. In July and August it opens from 9.30am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and from 12.30pm to 6pm on Sunday, and last entry and the Giralda both close at 5pm every day, Sunday included, under the summer timetable the Cabildo sets for those two months.
Every visit starts with the Giralda climb, so arriving after 5pm means neither tower nor nave. General admission is 13 euros online and 14 euros at the ticket office, and the time printed on the ticket is your entry slot, which makes it worth booking the 9.30am slot online; online tickets go in through the Puerta del Lagarto, ticket-office tickets through the Puerta del Príncipe. The Cabildo estimates 75 minutes for the cathedral and tower together. During the August novena for the Virgen de los Reyes the opening can slip to 11am, so check the day’s calendar before buying. Prices and free-entry rules are in the full cathedral and Giralda timetable.
The Real Alcázar de Sevilla opens at 9.30am all year and keeps its doors open until 7pm from 1 April to 30 September, with the grounds cleared from 7.45pm. Much of the visit is outdoor gardens, which is why it belongs at either end of the day rather than in the middle. General admission is 15.50 euros and reduced 8 euros; the Patio de Banderas ticket office opens at 9am and takes cards only, and the guide to Alcázar tickets and free entry covers who gets in free.
Getting between them takes no transport at all: the two entrances sit about 400 metres apart. From elsewhere in the city, the T1 tram stop Archivo de Indias is 156 metres from the cathedral and Puerta Jerez is 237 metres from the Alcázar, and the C5 bus stops at Plaza de la Contratación, 215 metres from the cathedral. A TUSSAM single ticket costs 1.40 euros, paid on board or by tapping a contactless Visa or Mastercard on the validator.
The one major outdoor sight that opens before the cathedral is free: María Luisa Park and Plaza de España open at 8am, and the Plaza de España and María Luisa Park loop fits into the cool of the early morning.
Outside the city, the morning is the only option. The guide to Itálica and its bus service works around a 3pm close that runs until 20 September, and an open archaeological site is where that close matters most.
Where to go indoors between 2pm and 7pm
The Junta de Andalucía’s protocol on excessive temperatures, which runs every year from 16 May to 30 September, singles out heat exposure during leisure activities, especially between 2pm and 7pm, and lists tourists among the groups at risk. Those five hours are the ones to spend under a roof, and central Seville has five indoor sites that stay open into the afternoon.
The Archivo General de Indias is free, sits 134 metres from the cathedral and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 9.30am to 5pm, which makes it the obvious next stop after the Giralda. The Museo de Bellas Artes charges 1.50 euros, free with an EU citizen’s ID, and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 9am to 9pm in July; in August it switches to 9am to 3pm, Tuesday to Sunday, and drops out of the afternoon. The C5 bus stops at Cardenal Cisneros (Abad Gordillo), 207 metres away.
The Antiquarium, the archaeological site underneath Las Setas, costs 2 euros and opens Tuesday to Saturday from 10am to 8pm, with the TB1 bus at Imagen (Plaza Encarnación) 88 metres away. Across the river, the Centro Cerámica Triana costs 2.10 euros and opens Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 8pm, 48 metres from the San Jorge (Altozano) stop on line 43. Both are free with a Real Alcázar general ticket, so the morning’s admission pays for the afternoon.
The CAAC, Seville’s contemporary art centre inside the Monasterio de la Cartuja, is the one that runs latest: Tuesday to Saturday from 11am to 9pm, 3.01 euros for the full visit, free from 7pm to 9pm Tuesday to Friday and all day Saturday. It is also the one that needs a bus, the 02 or the C1 to Américo Vespucio (Monasterio), 230 metres from the door. Opening hours and fares for all six central museums are compared in the comparison of Seville’s six central museums.
Monday is the day to avoid: all five indoor sites close. The cathedral and the Real Alcázar do open, so a Monday in August works only as a morning, with the afternoon given to the hotel.
Sunday shrinks the afternoon instead. The Archivo de Indias and the Antiquarium close at 2pm, the Bellas Artes at 3pm and the CAAC at 3.30pm, which leaves the Real Alcázar until 7pm, the Centro Cerámica Triana until 8pm, and the cathedral until its 5pm last entry.
The evening is easier than any of this suggests. Nights bottom out at a mean of 20.3°C in July, so an Alcázar visit that ends at 7pm runs straight into the cooler part of the day, and the guide to Seville monuments after dark covers what stays open. The flip side is the hotel: a room without working air conditioning does not cool down overnight either, and that is a booking criterion rather than a detail.
What an AEMET heat warning means for your day
Two warning systems run side by side. The AEMET issues yellow, orange and red warnings on maximum temperature with thresholds set zone by zone, and the city falls in the Campiña sevillana zone, where the AEMET sets them at 38°C, 40°C and 44°C, or 100.4°F, 104°F and 111.2°F. A yellow warning therefore means two degrees above July’s mean maximum, and an orange one, four.
The second system is a health one. The Junta’s protocol assigns a daily risk level from 0 to 3, built from how far the next three days’ forecasts exceed a threshold temperature, and when its level and the AEMET’s disagree, the higher one applies. Orange means low risk for healthy adults and red moderate risk; yellow already means low risk for over-65s with other risk factors, and the protocol counts babies and under-fours, pregnancy, chronic illness and medical treatment among those factors.
On an orange or red day the plan above simply tightens: outdoor sightseeing before 2pm or after 7pm, and the middle of the day indoors. The emergency number is 112.
Do you need to plan for rain in Seville in summer?
No. July brings 2 mm of rain and August 5 mm on the AEMET record, out of 539 mm a year, so the two months together contribute about one per cent of the annual total. Measurable rain falls on 0.2 days in an average July.
July is also the sunniest month, with 354 hours of sunshine against 328 hours in August, and it carries the lowest relative humidity of the twelve months at 44 per cent. Dry heat behaves differently from humid heat, and it means an outdoor plan in Seville never gets cancelled by weather. It only gets moved to a different hour.
June or September, which is the better month?
September, narrowly. Its mean daily maximum of 31.7°C sits half a degree below June’s 32.2°C. June runs 3.8 degrees cooler than July and September 4.3 degrees, a margin far larger than the idea of one long undifferentiated Andalusian summer suggests. Push one month further out and the drop steepens: May sits at 27.2°C and October at 26.0°C, ten degrees below July.
In Fahrenheit the two land either side of a round number, with June at 90.0°F and September at 89.1°F, which is close enough that neither should be picked on temperature alone.
The counterargument is rainfall. September brings 27 mm against June’s 10 mm, and its relative humidity climbs to 54 per cent from June’s 48 per cent. So the verdict splits by priority: September for the lower temperature, June for the near-guarantee of dry days. The timetables only partly follow: the cathedral’s summer hours apply to July and August alone, so June and September visitors get its standard later opening. The month-by-month guide to when to visit Seville sets both against the rest of the year.
Frequently asked questions about Seville heat in July and August
How hot does Seville get in August?
AEMET puts the mean daily maximum for August in Seville at 35.5°C, which is 95.9°F, with a mean minimum of 20.4°C or 68.7°F. July’s mean maximum is half a degree higher at 36.0°C, while its mean minimum of 20.3°C is a tenth of a degree lower.
Is August a bad time to visit Seville?
August works if the day is built around the temperature curve rather than against it. The gap between the mean minimum of 20.4°C and the mean maximum of 35.5°C is fifteen degrees, so the early hours are a different climate from the late afternoon. Seville Cathedral opens at 9.30am Monday to Saturday in August, which is the slot to book.
Does it rain in Seville in summer?
Almost never. The climate normals record 2 mm of rain in July and 5 mm in August, against 99 mm in December. On an annual total of 539 mm, the two summer months together account for about one per cent.
Should I visit Seville in June or September instead?
September, narrowly. Its mean daily maximum of 31.7°C sits half a degree below June’s 32.2°C, though September brings 27 mm of rain against June’s 10 mm. June runs 3.8 degrees cooler than July and September 4.3 degrees.
What time of day is coolest in Seville in summer?
The early morning. July has a mean minimum of 20.3°C and a mean maximum of 36.0°C, so the day travels almost sixteen degrees between its coolest point around dawn and its hottest in mid-afternoon.
Which is the hottest month in Seville?
July, on every measure in the record. It holds the highest mean temperature at 28.2°C, the highest mean daily maximum at 36.0°C and the most sunshine at 354 hours, alongside the lowest relative humidity of the year at 44 per cent.
Seville in August is not measured in degrees but in hours. The same 36.0°C fits inside a day that still works.