Weather in London in March

Shoulder season. March sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs sit at 10.7 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 8 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 10.7 °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: 6 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 19.7 °C and the coldest night fell to -4.4 °C.

March is moderately variable: 17 mm in the driest year against 114 mm in the wettest, around an average of 50 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 86%, which at 10.7 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.7 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 3.6 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 2 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

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

March 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, 1 day more rain. Le Havre is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: March is a compromise. September is 33 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 March.