Best time to visit Sapporo

Sapporo is a city of two halves. June scores 81 and February scores 3 — a 78-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 August — 3 months within ten points of the best.

August is the warmest month at 25.9 °C and January the coolest at -2.5 °C — a 28.4 °C spread across the year. At the other end, 141 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. January, February and December carry the rain — up to 24 wet days in a month — while April to August drop as low as 10. That 14-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Sapporo, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea peaks at just 20.5 °C, which is wetsuit territory even at its warmest — a coast to look at rather than swim in. Daylight runs from 9 hours in winter to 15.3 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

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

Sapporo month by month