Weather in Reykjavík in March

The month to avoid. March is the month most people should skip in Reykjavík. Highs sit at 3 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 9 of 12 in Reykjavík: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 20 of the month's 31 days, 5 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. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 3 °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: 16 nights fall below freezing; the day barely swings — 3.7 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 8.4 °C and the coldest night fell to -10.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 42 mm — roughly 27% 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 244 mm against 67 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 153 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 15.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 89%, which at 3 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 2.3 °C in February, 3 here, 5.5 in April. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in March

11.6 hours of daylight, gaining 3.3 hours across the month. That is between Reykjavík's extremes of 21 and 4.3 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 7.3 °C in March — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 12 °C in August and bottoms out at 7.3 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

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 Reykjavík versus nearby

If Reykjavík is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Akureyri is the weaker option in March — 6 °C cooler, 1 day more rain. Glasgow is a better bet in March — 4.8 °C warmer, 3 days less rain.

So: March is a compromise. July is 37 points better and is what Reykjavík 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 Reykjavík

See all twelve months in Reykjavík, or where else to go in March.