Best time to visit Columbus

Columbus is a city of two halves. September scores 80 and January scores 23 — a 57-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. 4 of the twelve months sit within ten points of the best, so there is more than one right answer.

August is the warmest month at 29.4 °C and January the coolest at 1.8 °C — a 27.6 °C spread across the year. Around 35 days a year top 30 °C, concentrated in August and the months either side. At the other end, 120 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. May to July carry the rain — up to 15 wet days in a month — while January, February and November drop as low as 8. That 7-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Columbus, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 9.4 hours in winter to 15 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

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

Columbus month by month