Edinburgh month by month
Plan your visit to Edinburgh by month. Compare weather, crowds, events, and prices across all twelve months with historical climate data.
Edinburgh's measured year splits into a long cool stretch and a short warm window. January sits at 6°C with 12 rain days. February and December both reach 8°C, but December is wetter at 15 rain days versus 13. March and November share 10°C. The warm window runs June through August, when highs hold between 18°C and 19°C. June records 11 rain days, the year's lowest. July reaches 16. August falls back to 12. The shoulder months, May at 15°C and September at 16°C, sit closer to summer than to winter.
The 12 month guides beneath this index follow those shifts in detail. For a summer visit, compare June and August first. June reaches 18°C with the year's fewest rain days at 11. August is 1°C warmer at 19°C and logs 12 rain days. If you're planning for shoulder season, May and September run within 1°C of each other and carry the same 13 rain days. Winter visitors should open December or January to see how the coldest readings shape a trip.
October is the wettest month in the measured year at 17 rain days, with highs at 13°C. July's 16 rain days at 19°C make it the one summer month where rain is a constant factor.
June records the year's fewest rain days at 11 and reaches 18°C, 1°C below the July and August peak but 5 fewer rain days than July's 16.
- January
- High
- 6°C
- Low
- 2°C
- Rain
- 74 mm
January in Edinburgh is dark, cold, and quiet, and honestly, that might be exactly what you're after. Daylight runs from roughly 8:45am to 3:45pm, giving you fewer than seven hours…
- February
- High
- 8°C
- Low
- 3°C
- Rain
- 74 mm
February in Edinburgh is cold, dark, and short on daylight, and that's precisely the point for a certain kind of traveler. You'll get roughly eight and a half hours of light,…
- March
- High
- 10°C
- Low
- 4°C
- Rain
- 69 mm
March in Edinburgh is still winter by most measures. Daytime temperatures sit around 9.5°C (49°F), and the wind off the Firth of Forth has a raw bite to it that the numbers alone…
- April
- High
- 11°C
- Low
- 4°C
- Rain
- 60 mm
April in Edinburgh is the month the city starts to thaw, not dramatically, not all at once, but enough that you can feel something shifting. Daytime temperatures hover around 11°C…
- May
- High
- 15°C
- Low
- 8°C
- Rain
- 91 mm
May in Edinburgh is a trick of the light, and the light is genuinely spectacular. Sunset drifts past nine in the evening, and on a clear day, the whole city glows gold for an hour…
- June
- High
- 18°C
- Low
- 11°C
- Rain
- 58 mm
The single most important thing about Edinburgh in June is the light. The sun rises before 4:30am and doesn't set until after 10pm, giving you close to 18 hours of usable daylight,…
- July
- High
- 19°C
- Low
- 13°C
- Rain
- 91 mm
July in Edinburgh means one thing above all else: light. The sun doesn't set until nearly quarter to ten at night, and proper darkness never really arrives: the sky fades to a…
- August
- High
- 19°C
- Low
- 12°C
- Rain
- 70 mm
August in Edinburgh is, quite simply, the biggest cultural event on the planet. The city's population roughly doubles as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the Edinburgh International…
- September
- High
- 17°C
- Low
- 11°C
- Rain
- 86 mm
September in Edinburgh is the morning after the party. The Festival Fringe wraps up in late August, and within days the city sheds something like a million extra visitors. Streets…
- October
- High
- 13°C
- Low
- 9°C
- Rain
- 123 mm
October in Edinburgh is wet. That's the headline: this is the city's rainiest month, with around 123mm of rainfall spread across roughly 17 days, and the kind of damp grey skies…
- November
- High
- 10°C
- Low
- 5°C
- Rain
- 89 mm
November in Edinburgh is dark. That is the single most important thing to understand before booking. By mid-month, the sun sets before 4pm, and you might get barely seven hours of…
- December
- High
- 8°C
- Low
- 4°C
- Rain
- 108 mm
December in Edinburgh is dark. That's the headline, and it shapes everything else about the month. The sun doesn't clear the horizon until nearly quarter to nine in the morning and…