Weather in Groningen in May

A good month. May is a solid month to be in Groningen. Highs average 17.1 °C, lows 7.8 °C, and rain falls on 12 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Groningen: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 12 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 17.1 °C days and 7.8 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 27.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.3 °C.

May is moderately variable: 18 mm in the driest year against 121 mm in the wettest, around an average of 58 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 12.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 78%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 3.4 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 3 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

15.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.6 hours across the month. That is between Groningen's extremes of 16.9 and 7.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 10.7 °C in May — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 18.4 °C in August and bottoms out at 5.3 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

May in Groningen versus nearby

If Groningen is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Bielefeld is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Rotterdam is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: May works, with June the better month by 8 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Groningen

See all twelve months in Groningen, or where else to go in May.