Best time to visit Sendai

Sendai is a city of two halves. May scores 77 and January scores 9 — a 68-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. 4 of the twelve months sit within ten points of the best, so there is more than one right answer.

August is the warmest month at 29.9 °C and January the coolest at 1.7 °C — a 28.2 °C spread across the year. Around 33 days a year top 30 °C, concentrated in August and the months either side. At the other end, 99 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. January and December carry the rain — up to 23 wet days in a month — while April to June drop as low as 12. That 11-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Sendai, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea is comfortable for swimming in July to September — 23.9 °C at its warmest against 10 °C at its coldest. The water peaks a month or two after the air does, so the best swimming falls later in the year than the best weather. Daylight runs from 9.5 hours in winter to 14.8 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

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

Sendai month by month