Weather in Virginia Beach in February

A hard month. February asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 8.9 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Virginia Beach's year. October is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 41 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 9 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 8.9 °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: 10 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 21.1 °C and the coldest night fell to -13.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 38 mm — roughly 52% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 22 mm in the driest year against 147 mm in the wettest, around an average of 73 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 14.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, which at 8.9 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 7.6 °C in January, 8.9 here, 12.4 in March. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in February

10.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.1 hours across the month. That is between Virginia Beach's extremes of 14.7 and 9.7 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 8.9 °C in February — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 25.8 °C in August and bottoms out at 8.7 °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

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 Virginia Beach versus nearby

If Virginia Beach is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Richmond is the weaker option in February — 2.1 °C cooler, 7 days more rain. Washington is the weaker option in February — 2.4 °C cooler, the same number of rain days.

So: February is a compromise. October is 36 points better and is what Virginia Beach 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 Virginia Beach

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