Weather in Gothenburg in October

A hard month. October asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 11.2 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

October ranks 7 of 12 in Gothenburg: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 17 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 11.2 °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 — 3.4 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 17.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 34 mm — roughly 30% of the month's rain in one day.

October is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest October on record still delivered 217 mm against 19 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 112 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 11.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at 11.2 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How October sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 5.1 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 4.2 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in October

10.5 hours of daylight, losing 2.4 hours across the month. That is between Gothenburg's extremes of 18 and 6.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 21.2 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

October in Gothenburg versus nearby

If Gothenburg is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Århus is a better bet in October — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Linköping is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain.

So: October is a compromise. July is 31 points better and is what Gothenburg 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 Gothenburg

See all twelve months in Gothenburg, or where else to go in October.