Weather in Bilbao in October

A good month. October is a solid month to be in Bilbao. Highs average 20.3 °C, lows 15.7 °C, and rain falls on 12 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

October ranks 5 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 12 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. 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: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average October reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 4.6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 28.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 7.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 42 mm — roughly 44% of the month's rain in one day.

October is moderately variable: 24 mm in the driest year against 211 mm in the wettest, around an average of 95 mm. Roughly two Octobers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 15.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 73%.

How October sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2.3 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 4.6 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in October

11.1 hours of daylight, losing 1.4 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 18.7 °C in October — swimmable, but it takes a moment to commit. 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

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

October 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, the same number of rain days. Gijón is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: October works, with July the better month by 9 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Bilbao

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