Weather in Greymouth in January

A good month. January works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. You should expect rain on 15 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

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

Rain on 15 days, 5 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average January reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 5.7 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 25.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 8.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 79 mm — roughly 51% of the month's rain in one day.

January is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest January on record still delivered 319 mm against 58 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 155 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 4.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 83%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 18 °C in December, 19.2 here, 19.6 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January is at or near the longest days of Greymouth's year: 15 hours of daylight, losing 0.8 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 17.7 °C in January — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. 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.

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

January in Greymouth versus nearby

If Greymouth is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Waikowhai is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Christchurch is a better bet in January — 5.1 °C warmer, 3 days less rain.

So: January is effectively as good as it gets here — 6 points behind February, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Greymouth

See all twelve months in Greymouth, or where else to go in January.