Weather in Bilbao in March

Shoulder season. March is shoulder season in Bilbao — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 14.1 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 8 of 12 in Bilbao: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 14 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.1 °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: the day barely swings — 4.3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 21.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 1.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 37 mm — roughly 39% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 21 mm in the driest year against 168 mm in the wettest, around an average of 94 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 16.7 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 78%, which at 14.1 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 12.4 °C in February, 14.1 here, 15.5 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.5 hours across the month. That is between Bilbao's extremes of 15.4 and 9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 12.5 °C in March — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 21.9 °C in August and bottoms out at 12.5 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

March in Bilbao versus nearby

If Bilbao is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Gasteiz / Vitoria is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Gijón is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 31 points better and is what Bilbao 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 Bilbao

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