Best time to visit Köln

Köln is a city of two halves. September scores 81 and January scores 25 — a 56-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs May to September — 5 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 24.9 °C and January the coolest at 4.8 °C — a 20.1 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 65 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. January, July and December carry the rain — up to 15 wet days in a month — while April and September drop as low as 10. That 5-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Köln, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight swings hard — 16.5 hours at midsummer against 8 at midwinter. That 8.5-hour difference changes how much fits into a day more than the temperature does.

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

Köln month by month