Weather in Dunedin in March

A good month. March is a solid month to be in Dunedin. Highs average 15.7 °C, lows 11.3 °C, and rain falls on 10 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

March ranks 2 of 12 in Dunedin. Only February scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 10 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 15.7 °C days and 11.3 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: the day barely swings — 4.3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 23.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 6.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 63% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 18 mm in the driest year against 129 mm in the wettest, around an average of 54 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 17.2 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 81%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 16.4 °C in February, 15.7 here, 13.8 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in March

12.5 hours of daylight, losing 1.6 hours across the month. That is between Dunedin's extremes of 15.7 and 8.7 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 12.5 °C in March — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, November is the trade worth considering — 10 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

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

March in Dunedin versus nearby

If Dunedin is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Papatowai is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Wanaka is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.2 °C warmer, 4 days more rain.

So: March is effectively as good as it gets here — 1 points behind February, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Dunedin

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