Weather in Stavanger in October

A hard month. October asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 19 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

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

This is wet-season rain: 19 wet days and 7 genuinely heavy ones, which in this climate means concentrated downpours rather than all-day grey. The pattern is usually a clear morning and a loud afternoon, so front-load the day and stop fighting the 3pm hour. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 11.2 °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 — 3 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 17.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 1.3 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 53 mm — roughly 28% of the month's rain in one day.

October is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest October on record still delivered 317 mm against 51 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 189 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 14.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 85%, which at 11.2 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How October sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 3.9 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 3.7 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in October

10.4 hours of daylight, losing 2.6 hours across the month. That is between Stavanger's extremes of 18.4 and 6.3 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 17.2 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

October in Stavanger versus nearby

If Stavanger is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Kristiansand is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Bergen is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: October is a compromise. July is 22 points better and is what Stavanger 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 Stavanger

See all twelve months in Stavanger, or where else to go in October.