Weather in Adelaide in March

Prime time. March is about as good as Adelaide gets. Highs average 27.2 °C, lows 14.9 °C, and rain falls on 4 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

March is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is October, and the month at the other end of the year is July.

Rain falls on only 4 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 9 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 41 °C and the coldest night fell to 8.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 68 mm — roughly 272% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. March rainfall has ranged from 0 mm to 130 mm across the twenty years measured — a 130 mm spread around an average of 25 mm. The average is real but almost no individual March looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 10.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 58%.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2.5 °C cooler than February, with April dropping another 3.8 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in March

12.4 hours of daylight, losing 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Adelaide's extremes of 14.5 and 9.8 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 23.5 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, September is the trade worth considering — 13 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

March in Adelaide versus nearby

If Adelaide is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Gawler is the weaker option in March — 2 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Whyalla is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: March is the answer for Adelaide. If it is booked out or priced out, October is the next best thing at 1 points behind, and July is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Adelaide

See all twelve months in Adelaide, or where else to go in March.