Weather in Zermatt in March

The month to avoid. Of the twelve, March is the one to avoid. Highs sit at 2 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Zermatt's year. August is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 53 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 13 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 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: 28 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 12.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -23.1 °C.

March is moderately variable: 15 mm in the driest year against 150 mm in the wettest, around an average of 63 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 87%, which at 2 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.7 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 4.9 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.6 hours across the month. That is between Zermatt's extremes of 15.7 and 8.7 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 28.7 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 1608 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

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.

March in Zermatt versus nearby

If Zermatt is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Chamonix-Mont-Blanc is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.2 °C warmer, 1 day more rain. Luzern is a better bet in March — 8.2 °C warmer, 2 days more rain.

So: March is a compromise. August is 49 points better and is what Zermatt 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 Zermatt

See all twelve months in Zermatt, or where else to go in March.