Weather in Bergen in January

The month to avoid. January is the month most people should skip in Bergen. Highs sit at 1.7 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Bergen's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 51 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 22 of the month's 31 days, 11 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 1.7 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 18 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 3.7 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 9.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -18.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 69 mm — roughly 23% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 51 mm in the driest year against 593 mm in the wettest, around an average of 299 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 94%, which at 1.7 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 2.8 °C in December, 1.7 here, 1.9 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

6.6 hours of daylight, gaining 1.8 hours across the month. That is between Bergen's extremes of 19 and 5.8 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 21.8 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

January in Bergen versus nearby

If Bergen is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Stavanger is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.1 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Kristiansand is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.2 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: January is a compromise. July is 50 points better and is what Bergen is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Bergen

See all twelve months in Bergen, or where else to go in January.