Weather in Port-Vila in March

Shoulder season. March sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 23 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

March ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Port-Vila's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 23 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 23 of the month's 31 days, 8 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Pack for 28.3 °C days and 27.5 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average March reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 0.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 30.3 °C and the coldest night fell to 25.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 100 mm — roughly 43% of the month's rain in one day.

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 494 mm against 78 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 232 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind sits around 17.9 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 81%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 28.5 °C in February, 28.3 here, 27.8 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in March

12.2 hours of daylight, losing 0.5 hours across the month. That is between Port-Vila's extremes of 13.2 and 11.1 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.7 °C in March — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

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.

March in Port-Vila versus nearby

If Port-Vila is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Nouméa is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain. Nadi is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain.

So: March is a compromise. September is 23 points better and is what Port-Vila 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 Port-Vila

See all twelve months in Port-Vila, or where else to go in March.