Weather in Manchester in February

A hard month. February is a hard month in Manchester, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 6.8 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 9 of 12 in Manchester: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 14 wet days but only 1 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 6.8 °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: 9 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 5 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 15.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -6.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 25 mm — roughly 33% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 31 mm in the driest year against 192 mm in the wettest, around an average of 75 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 14.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 93%, which at 6.8 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 6.3 °C in January, 6.8 here, 9.1 in March. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in February

9.8 hours of daylight, gaining 2 hours across the month. That is between Manchester's extremes of 17 and 7.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 17.8 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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.

February in Manchester versus nearby

If Manchester 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, 3 days less rain. Kingston upon Hull is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: February is a compromise. June is 33 points better and is what Manchester 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 Manchester

See all twelve months in Manchester, or where else to go in February.