Weather in Vienna in February

The month to avoid. Of the twelve, February is the one to avoid. Highs sit at 5.5 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Vienna's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 52 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 9 days, 0 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 5.5 °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 February day reached 18.1 °C and the coldest night fell to -15.8 °C.

February is moderately variable: 8 mm in the driest year against 82 mm in the wettest, around an average of 38 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 10.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 86%, which at 5.5 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.2 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 5.2 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in February

10.2 hours of daylight, gaining 1.6 hours across the month. That is between Vienna's extremes of 16 and 8.4 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 30.8 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

February in Vienna versus nearby

If Vienna is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Graz is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Budapest is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: February is a compromise. September is 48 points better and is what Vienna 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 Vienna

See all twelve months in Vienna, or where else to go in February.