Weather in Dublin in March

A hard month. March asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 9 °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 Dublin: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 15 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 9 °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 — 4.7 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 14.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 29 mm — roughly 41% of the month's rain in one day.

March is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest March on record still delivered 132 mm against 34 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 70 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 17.3 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 88%, which at 9 °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: 7.8 °C in February, 9 here, 11.1 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in March

11.7 hours of daylight, gaining 2.1 hours across the month. That is between Dublin's extremes of 17 and 7.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 13.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

March in Dublin versus nearby

If Dublin is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Galway is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Cork is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 26 points better and is what Dublin 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 Dublin

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