Weather in Manchester in March

A hard month. March is a hard month in Manchester, and worth planning around. Highs sit at 9.1 °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 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 9.1 °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 18 °C and the coldest night fell to -5.1 °C.

March is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest March on record still delivered 126 mm against 26 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 67 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

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 89%, which at 9.1 °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: 2.3 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 3.1 °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

11.7 hours of daylight, gaining 2.1 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

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

So: March is a compromise. June is 26 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 March.