Weather in Le Havre in January

The month to avoid. January is the month most people should skip in Le Havre. Highs sit at 8 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

January ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Le Havre's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 48 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 16 wet days but only 2 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 8 °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: 3 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 3.5 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 13.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -3.3 °C.

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 135 mm against 42 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 79 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 20.3 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 88%, which at 8 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 8.9 °C in December, 8 here, 8.2 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Le Havre's year — 8.6 hours of daylight against 16.3 at midsummer, gaining 1 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 10.1 °C in January — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 17.4 °C in September and bottoms out at 8.6 °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

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

January in Le Havre versus nearby

If Le Havre is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Paris is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days less rain. London is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: January is a compromise. July is 48 points better and is what Le Havre 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 Le Havre

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