Best time to visit Zermatt

Zermatt is a city of two halves. August scores 67 and December scores 14 — a 53-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to September — 4 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 18.7 °C and January the coolest at -1.3 °C — a 20 °C spread across the year. It never reaches 30 °C in an average year, which takes heat off the list of reasons to avoid any particular month. At the other end, 170 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. May to July carry the rain — up to 18 wet days in a month — while January to February drop as low as 10. That 8-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Zermatt, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 8.7 hours in winter to 15.7 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are August, July, June. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Zermatt month by month