Weather in Canberra in April

Prime time. April is about as good as Canberra gets. Highs average 20.7 °C, lows 9.6 °C, and rain falls on 8 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

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

Rain on 8 days, 1 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 April reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 31.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 45 mm — roughly 110% of the month's rain in one day.

April is moderately variable: 9 mm in the driest year against 125 mm in the wettest, around an average of 41 mm. Roughly two Aprils in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 3.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 73%.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 4.1 °C cooler than March, with May dropping another 4.4 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in April

11.2 hours of daylight, losing 1 hours across the month. That is between Canberra's extremes of 14.5 and 9.8 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 27.5 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, May is the trade worth considering — 9 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

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

April in Canberra versus nearby

If Canberra is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Katoomba is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.1 °C cooler, the same number of rain days. Bathurst is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: April is the answer for Canberra. If it is booked out or priced out, October is the next best thing at 3 points behind, and June is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Canberra

See all twelve months in Canberra, or where else to go in April.