Weather in Le Havre in May

A good month. May is a solid month to be in Le Havre. Highs average 15.4 °C, lows 10.1 °C, and rain falls on 12 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Le Havre: past the worst of the year but short of July, 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 15.4 °C days and 10.1 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: the day barely swings — 5.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 23.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 5.6 °C.

May is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest May on record still delivered 90 mm against 16 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 56 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 14.4 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 May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.5 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 2.9 °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

15.3 hours of daylight, gaining 1.4 hours across the month. That is between Le Havre's extremes of 16.3 and 8.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 11.3 °C in May — 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

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

May in Le Havre versus nearby

If Le Havre is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Paris is a better bet in May — 3.9 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. London is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: May works, with July the better month by 16 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Le Havre

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