Best time to visit Oslo

Oslo is a city of two halves. June scores 72 and January scores 14 — a 58-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to September — 4 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 21.7 °C and January the coolest at -2.1 °C — a 23.8 °C spread across the year. It never reaches 30 °C in an average year, which takes heat off the list of reasons to avoid any particular month. At the other end, 138 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. July to August carry the rain — up to 18 wet days in a month — while February to April drop as low as 11. That 7-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Oslo, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight swings hard — 18.8 hours at midsummer against 6 at midwinter. That 12.8-hour difference changes how much fits into a day more than the temperature does.

The three strongest months are June, July, August. The one to think twice about is January. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Oslo month by month