In July, typical afternoon highs at The Alamo run around 92°F (hot). Mid-afternoon sun stands about 70° high, and the sun is up from 6:44 AM to 8:35 PM. Historic districts usually offer building shade on one side of the street as the sun moves.
See live sun & real shadows here →| January | 60°F |
| February | 70°F |
| March | 82°F |
| April | 86°F |
| May | 91°F |
| June | 94°F |
| July | 92°F |
| August | 97°F |
| September | 92°F |
| October | 88°F |
| November | 78°F |
| December | 69°F |
Historic districts usually offer building shade on one side of the street as the sun moves. See real building shadows over satellite imagery for any time of day: https://isthereshade.com/?anywhere&at=29.42556,-98.48611
Around 8:35 PM local time in mid-July (it shifts through the year). Sunrise is about 6:44 AM.
The Alamo · San Antonio, TX. Data: exact sun position; climate normals from historical weather; live forecast on the interactive view.
Few places test a visitor's tolerance for the sun like the Alamo in August. This is San Antonio at its hottest, with afternoon highs around 97°F in late summer and 92°F through July, and the grounds are largely open plaza and stone. The mission church and the walls are the draw, but they throw only narrow shadows, and the paved square in front of them holds the heat and reflects it back. Planning your visit around the sun is not optional here; it is the whole game.
In high summer the sun rises around 6:44 AM and sets near 8:35 PM. The early hours are the only genuinely cool ones. By 3 PM the sun stands 70 degrees up, nearly overhead, sitting to the west-southwest at about a 251-degree bearing. At that near-vertical angle the buildings and walls cast very little shade, and the plaza bakes with almost nothing to duck under. The middle of the day, from late morning through mid-afternoon, is the stretch to avoid if you can.
Arrive close to opening, when the sun is low in the east and the western faces of the walls still hold shade, or come back in the last hours before the 8:35 PM sunset as the light softens and the shadows finally stretch across the plaza.
The open plaza out front and the queue areas are the exposed hot spots, with the near-overhead midday sun leaving them without cover.
Treat a summer visit to the Alamo as a real heat event. At 97°F on an open stone plaza, dehydration and sunstroke are genuine risks, and the queues can leave you standing in full sun. Bring water and drink before you feel thirsty, wear a wide-brimmed hat, and use the shaded gardens and indoor spaces to cool down between stretches in the open. The heat here typically breaks only in the evening, so build your visit around the cool ends of the day.
To see how the church, walls, and trees shade the grounds at your planned hour, check the satellite shadow view before you go.