Weather in London in April

Shoulder season. April sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 14.3 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

April ranks 6 of 12 in London: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 11 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 14.3 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 25.5 °C and the coldest night fell to -2.6 °C.

April is moderately variable: 2 mm in the driest year against 115 mm in the wettest, around an average of 42 mm. Roughly two Aprils in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 14.3 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 3.6 °C warmer than March, and May 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 April

13.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.9 hours across the month. That is between London's extremes of 16.6 and 7.9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 21.1 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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.

April in London versus nearby

If London is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Birmingham is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Le Havre is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: April is a compromise. September is 21 points better and is what London 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 London

See all twelve months in London, or where else to go in April.