Weather in Vigo in May

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, May is the one. Highs average 20 °C, lows 11.4 °C, and rain falls on 11 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 5 of 12 in Vigo: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 11 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average May reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 31 °C and the coldest night fell to 5.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 30 mm — roughly 42% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 19 mm in the driest year against 153 mm in the wettest, around an average of 71 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 4.9 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.6 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 3.5 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

14.5 hours of daylight, gaining 1 hours across the month. That is between Vigo's extremes of 15.2 and 9.1 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 15.8 °C in May — cold — a quick dip rather than a swim, and a wetsuit if you are in for longer. The sea peaks at 18.5 °C in August and bottoms out at 13.7 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

May in Vigo versus nearby

If Vigo is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Braga is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.5 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Aveiro is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: May works, with July the better month by 13 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Vigo

See all twelve months in Vigo, or where else to go in May.