Best time to visit Chicago

Chicago is a city of two halves. September scores 81 and February scores 28 — a 53-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to September — 4 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 25.1 °C and January the coolest at -0.2 °C — a 25.3 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 96 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. April to August carry the rain — up to 13 wet days in a month — while January, February, March, November and December drop as low as 8. That 5-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Chicago, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 9.2 hours in winter to 15.2 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are September, July, June. The one to think twice about is February. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Chicago month by month