Best time to visit Gwangju

Gwangju is a city of two halves. October scores 89 and January scores 30 — a 59-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. Only 2 months come close to the top, which makes the timing narrow.

August is the warmest month at 29.6 °C and January the coolest at 4.5 °C — a 25.1 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 96 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. July to August carry the rain — up to 17 wet days in a month — while January, February, October and November drop as low as 5. That 12-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Gwangju, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea is comfortable for swimming in July to October — 27.3 °C at its warmest against 14.4 °C at its coldest. The water peaks a month or two after the air does, so the best swimming falls later in the year than the best weather. Daylight runs from 9.8 hours in winter to 14.5 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are October, May, September. The one to think twice about is January. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight, sea temperature and crowd levels.

Gwangju month by month