Weather in Seoul in March

A hard month. March asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 9.1 °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 Seoul: past the worst of the year but short of May, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 7 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 9.1 °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: 18 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 18.5 °C and the coldest night fell to -9.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 36 mm — roughly 97% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 11 mm in the driest year against 112 mm in the wettest, around an average of 37 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 74%.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 5.4 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 6.5 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.9 hours of daylight, gaining 1.2 hours across the month. That is between Seoul's extremes of 14.7 and 9.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 35.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

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.

March in Seoul versus nearby

If Seoul is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Daegu is a better bet in March — 3.2 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Gwangju is a better bet in March — 3.2 °C warmer, the same number of rain days.

So: March is a compromise. May is 35 points better and is what Seoul 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 Seoul

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