Weather in Richmond in April

A hard month. April asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 11.7 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

April ranks 6 of 12 in Richmond: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 15 wet days but only 2 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 11.7 °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: the day barely swings — 5.2 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 22.7 °C and the coldest night fell to 0.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 27 mm — roughly 31% of the month's rain in one day.

April is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest April on record still delivered 141 mm against 19 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 87 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 5.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, which at 11.7 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.9 °C warmer than March, and May adds another 4 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short. Rain has already shifted: 5 days fewer than March had.

Daylight in April

13.1 hours of daylight, gaining 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Richmond's extremes of 14.7 and 9.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 18.7 °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.

April in Richmond versus nearby

If Richmond is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Virginia Beach is a better bet in April — 6.2 °C warmer, 5 days less rain. Washington is a better bet in April — 6.4 °C warmer, 5 days less rain.

So: April is a compromise. July is 45 points better and is what Richmond 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 Richmond

See all twelve months in Richmond, or where else to go in April.