Climate and average weather in Rennes

In Rennes, the summers are warm, fairly dry, and partly cloudy and the winters are cool and mostly cloudy.

Best: late May to late September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Rennes typically varies from 3°C to 23°C, and is rarely below -3°C or above 29°C. July is the hottest month of the year, while January is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best time of year to visit Rennes for warm-weather activities is from late May to late September.

Hottest
Jul
23°
Coldest
Jan
Wettest
Dec
71 mm
Driest
Jul
46 mm
Rain / yr
687 mm
122 wet days
Daylight
8.1–15.9 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
39 m
48.1°N
Clearest
Aug
61% cloud

Rennes is capital city of the region of Brittany, France.

Air quality
Good
PM2.5 9.4 µg/m³ · 2019
Density
4,521/km²
people per km²

Air quality: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Density & description: Wikidata (CC0), GeoNames.

Rennes weather by month, at a glance

The whole year in one picture — sky, rain, humidity, temperature and travel score. Click any band to jump to its full chart.

Each stripe is one measure across the whole year, stacked so a single day reads top to bottom. The sky band runs overcast grey on top down to clear blue at the base — more blue means sunnier — followed by the rainfall curve, the humidity band, a temperature strip that tints each stretch of the year by how warm its average high is, and the travel-score line at the foot. Scan straight down any date to read that day across every measure at once; the score climbs highest around late May to late September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

Daily average highs and lows in Rennes, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

The hot season lasts 3.6 months, from June 2 to September 20, with daily high temperatures above 20°C. The hottest month of the year in Rennes is July, with an average high of 23°C and low of 14°C.

The cool season lasts 3.6 months, from November 18 to March 7, with daily high temperatures below 11°C. The coldest month of the year in Rennes is January, with an average low of 3°C and high of 9°C.

Days typically run about 8°C warmer than nights, with the widest day–night swing (around 10°C) in August.

10°20°30°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan93
Feb93
Mar125
Apr156
May189
Jun2112
Jul2314
Aug2314
Sep2111
Oct169
Nov126
Dec94

How hot and cold Rennes really feels

Feels-like highFeels-like lowactual air temp

The felt-temperature range through the year — heat index on the day's high (summer humidity), wind chill on the night's low (winter wind). The dashed lines are the plain thermometer; the gap is how much hotter or colder it really feels.

On the coldest nights, wind chill pulls the feels-like down to about -1°C (around February 2), with roughly 81 freezing days a year (feels-like at or below 0°C), worst in February.

-5°10°15°20°25°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan89-13
Feb99-13
Mar121215
Apr151536
May181889
Jun21211212
Jul23231414
Aug23231414
Sep21211111
Oct161679
Nov121236
Dec9904

Average hourly temperature in Rennes

A compact picture of the whole year, hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled average temperature. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

Read left to right for the day of the year and top to bottom for the hour of the day; the color is the modeled temperature, cool blues through to hot reds on the same scale as the other charts. A vertical slice is a single day's swing — coolest just before dawn, warmest in the mid-afternoon — while a horizontal slice follows one hour across the seasons. The darker overlay marks night and the lighter one the twilight around sunrise and sunset. Colors run warmest on July afternoons, near 23°C, and coldest before dawn in January, near C.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM

Rennes weather by month

Every month at a glance. Click a month for its detailed page.

MonthHigh / Low (°C)Rainfall (mm)Wet daysSnow daysDaylight (hours)Travel score
Jan / 6411.20.58.61.5
Feb / 529.80.49.91.9
Mar12° / 5210.50.211.63.2
Apr15° / 5811.1013.44.3
May18° / 6310.8014.95.6
Jun21° / 12°539.1015.86.5
Jul23° / 14°467.8015.47.2
Aug23° / 14°478.2014.17.1
Sep21° / 11°498.2012.46.6
Oct16° / 6911.4010.64.9
Nov12° / 6511.3092.9
Dec / 7112.10.38.21.7

Chance of rain

How likely it is to rain on a typical day, and how that shifts across the wetter and drier seasons.

Rennes gets about 687 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is often wet, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 4.1 months, from around Sep 25 to Jan 26, peaking in December at about 41% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Sep 1.

December is the wettest month by volume, with 71 mm over about 12 wet days; July is the driest, with 46 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetDec 25 · 41%Sep 1 · 22%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan3711
Feb3510
Mar3311
Apr3611
May3511
Jun319
Jul258
Aug268
Sep288
Oct3711
Nov3711
Dec3912

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Rennes collects about 687 mm of rain across 122 wet days — roughly 57 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. December is the wettest month with 71 mm, while July is the driest at just 46 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 30% of the year’s total, and some of the cold-season precipitation falls as snow.

0255075100JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec645252586353464749696571
Rainfall (mm)Rain daysSnow days
Jan64111
Feb52100
Mar52110
Apr58110
May63110
Jun5390
Jul4680
Aug4780
Sep4980
Oct69110
Nov65110
Dec71120

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

How often the daytime sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast.

In Rennes, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows moderate seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around May 20 and lasts for 4.3 months, ending around September 28. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 43% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 29 and lasts for 5.9 months, ending around March 26. The cloudiest month is January, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 74% of the time.

0%100%10%90%20%80%30%70%40%60%50%50%60%40%70%30%80%20%90%10%100%0%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAug 14 · 44%Jan 12 · 25%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan2674
Feb3070
Mar3169
Apr3565
May3169
Jun3763
Jul4258
Aug4357
Sep4060
Oct3268
Nov3070
Dec2971

Daylight, sunrise and sunset

DaylightNight

Hours of daylight through the year, with sunrise and sunset times.

The gold band is daylight — sunrise runs along its lower edge, sunset along the upper — so it widens toward summer and pinches toward winter, with night the dark area above and below. The longest day, around June 20, brings about 15 h 54 min of light; the shortest, around December 20, only 8 h 06 min — a swing of roughly 7 h 48 min.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan8.68:595:33
Feb9.98:246:18
Mar11.67:297:03
Apr13.46:257:49
May14.95:348:32
Jun15.85:129:02
Jul15.45:288:57
Aug14.16:078:15
Sep12.46:517:11
Oct10.67:356:09
Nov9.08:235:21
Dec8.28:585:08

Sunny days

How many genuinely sunny days each month brings — days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — banded into plain-language zones.

Rennes averages about 6 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 4 and 7 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 4.4 months, from around May 17 to Sep 27. The sunniest month is September, with roughly 7 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is November, down near 5 sunny days — about 34% fewer than the September peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedSep 17 daysNov 254 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan4Gloomy
Feb5Gloomy
Mar5Gloomy
Apr6Gloomy
May5Gloomy
Jun6Gloomy
Jul7Gloomy
Aug7Gloomy
Sep7Gloomy
Oct5Gloomy
Nov4Gloomy
Dec5Gloomy

Humidity comfort

DryComfortableHumidMuggyOppressiveMiserable

Share of days at each humidity comfort level, based on the dew point — the measure that tracks how muggy it actually feels.

Humidity comfort is graded by the dew point — the temperature at which the air would be fully saturated — because it tracks how muggy it actually feels far better than relative humidity does. A low dew point feels dry and crisp; a high one feels sticky and oppressive no matter the reading on a humidity gauge.

In Rennes, how humid it feels changes noticeably over the year.

The more humid part of the year lasts 3.6 months, from around June 7 to September 23. The muggiest month is August, when the air feels humid, muggy or worse about 20% of the time.

The most comfortable stretch runs from around September 24 to June 6, and April is the most comfortable month — the air is dry or comfortable 100% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecApr 19 · 100%Aug 7 · 76%humidcomfortabledrycomfortablehumidcomfortable
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan100000
Feb100000
Mar100000
Apr99100
May891010
Jun652861
Jul3945141
Aug4040182
Sep652960
Oct791920
Nov97300
Dec100000

Wind

Average wind speed through the year, banded into plain-language speed zones so a number reads as 'breezy' or 'calm' without knowing the scale.

This is the average sustained wind speed at the standard 10 metres above open ground — the steady flow a weather station reports, not the sharper gusts that come and go, which can run half again as fast. It's the number that says whether a place is generally breezy or calm.

Across the year, average wind speed in Rennes is typically light breeze, near 13 km/h, and varies little with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 5.8 months, from around Oct 18 to Apr 11. The windiest month is January, averaging about 15 km/h (light breeze).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Apr 12 to Oct 17, with August the calmest month at about 12 km/h.

05101520JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwindiercalmerwindiercalmlight breezeJan 5 · 15 km/hAug 4 · 11 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan15light breeze
Feb15light breeze
Mar14light breeze
Apr13light breeze
May13light breeze
Jun12light breeze
Jul12calm
Aug12calm
Sep12light breeze
Oct13light breeze
Nov14light breeze
Dec15light breeze

Best time to visit Rennes

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

To characterize how pleasant the weather is in Rennes throughout the year, we compute two travel scores — one for general sightseeing, one for beach and pool weather.

Around mid September, Rennes is still near the tail of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds already thinning.

Inferred from the travel-score curve; month-by-month visitor numbers are a planned addition.

The travel score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 18°C and 28°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Rennes for general outdoor tourist activities is from late May to late September, with a peak score in the third week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 21 · 7.4

The travel score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

Travel score (0–10)Rating
Jan1.5poor
Feb1.9poor
Mar3.2poor
Apr4.3fair
May5.6good
Jun6.5good
Jul7.2good
Aug7.1good
Sep6.5good
Oct4.9fair
Nov2.9poor
Dec1.7poor

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Rennes for hot-weather activities is from late June to early September, with a peak score in the last week of July.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 27 · 6.2

The beach/pool score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

What to pack for Rennes, by month

EssentialRecommendedOptional

Month by month, what's worth putting in the bag — from the temperature range, rain chance, sun and wind. Tap a month for a quick packing note.

For a warm-season trip around July (highs near 23°C), the essentials are light clothes and sun protection. In the cold season around January (highs near 9°C), pack a warm layer and rain gear.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In July, Rennes sees daytime highs around 23°C and nights near 14°C. Worth packing: light clothes and sun protection. About 8 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Rennes

Average ocean temperature at the nearest coast, month by month, banded into swim-comfort zones — the other half of the beach question.

The sea at the nearest coast (about 57 km away) is warmest in August at about 19°C and coldest in February near 8°C.

The water stays below 20°C all year — cool enough that most swimmers want a wetsuit.

5°10°15°20°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbracingcoolrefreshing
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan9Bracing
Feb8Bracing
Mar8Bracing
Apr10Bracing
May13Bracing
Jun16Cool
Jul18Cool
Aug19Cool
Sep18Cool
Oct16Cool
Nov13Bracing
Dec10Bracing

UV index (midday) in Rennes by month

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Clear-sky midday UV index through the year, shaded by the WHO exposure levels — how much sun protection each month calls for.

Under clear skies, the midday UV index in Rennes peaks around June 18 at about 7 (high) — sunscreen and a hat are worth it in the middle of the day. It bottoms out near January 1 at about 1 (low).

The index reaches 3 or more — the level where the WHO recommends sun protection — in 7 months of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecLowModerateHighModerateLowJun 18UV 7Jan 1UV 1
UV index (midday)Level
Jan1Low
Feb2Low
Mar3Moderate
Apr5High
May6High
Jun7High
Jul6High
Aug7High
Sep5Moderate
Oct3Moderate
Nov1Low
Dec1Low

Average hourly UV index in Rennes

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Modeled clear-sky UV for every hour of every day — when in the day sun protection actually matters.

The whole year hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled clear-sky UV index — the midday peak scaled down as the sun sits lower in the sky. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

UV falls off far faster than brightness as the sun drops, so even in June the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 7.5 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 3 hours reach 6 or more. Mornings and late afternoons stay comparatively gentle year round.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM
UV ≥ 3 (h/day)UV ≥ 6 (h/day)
Jan00
Feb00
Mar20
Apr5.50
May70
Jun7.53
Jul7.52.5
Aug72.5
Sep50
Oct00
Nov00
Dec00
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayReliably frost-free (≥90%)

Rennes is mild enough that a frost-free day stays more likely than not even in midwinter. Nights are reliably above freezing from about March 12 to November 20 (254 days); outside that window a hard frost is an occasional risk.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecreliably frost-freeMar 1290%Nov 2090%
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan7731
Feb7628
Mar9112
Apr970
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct990
Nov9212
Dec8031

Growing degree days

Degree days (base 10°C)Frost-free shaded

Growing degree days tally heat above 10°C: each day adds however many degrees its average temperature runs over that threshold, and cold days add nothing. Rennes banks about 1,120 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around July.

02505007501,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan0
Feb0
Mar0
Apr19
May113
Jun198
Jul263
Aug262
Sep180
Oct83
Nov3
Dec0

Solar energy

Average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground, banded into brightness zones so the number means something at a glance.

Solar energy is how much sunlight actually reaches the ground each day, measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre (kWh/m²) — the combined effect of how long the sun is up, how high it climbs, and how much cloud gets in the way. It's the raw fuel a solar panel has to work with: for scale, 1 kWh/m² a day is dim and wintry, while 7+ is desert-bright.

Rennes receives about 3.4 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — moderate — with a clear seasonal swing between 0.9 and 5.8 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 6.1 months, from around Mar 21 to Sep 21. The brightest month is June, averaging about 5.7 kWh/m² (bright).

The dimmest month is December, down near 0.9 kWh/m² — roughly 84% less than the June peak.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmerbrighterdimmerdimmoderatebrightintenseJun 225.8 kWhDec 250.9 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan1.1Dim
Feb1.9Dim
Mar3.1Moderate
Apr4.6Bright
May5.4Bright
Jun5.8Bright
Jul5.5Bright
Aug4.8Bright
Sep3.7Moderate
Oct2.1Moderate
Nov1.3Dim
Dec0.9Dim

Where is Rennes?

Rennes sits at 48.1°N, 1.7°W, 39 m above sea level, in France. The nearest listed city is Cesson-Sévigné, 5.0 km away.

What Rennes looks like

Topography around Rennes

How much the land rises and falls, and what covers it, within 3, 16 and 80 km of Rennes.

Within 3 km, the terrain around Rennes has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 51 m around an average of 40 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 118 m; within 80 km, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 353 m.

The land around Rennes is covered by artificial surfaces (63%) and trees (29%) within 3 km, cropland (33%), grassland (28%) and trees (27%) within 16 km, and cropland (44%), grassland (27%) and trees (21%) within 80 km.

3 km
51 m
16 km
118 m
80 km
353 m
treesgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswater
Nearby: Cesson-Sévigné 5.0 km · Vitré 35 km · Fougères 44 km · Saint-Malo 65 km · Laval 67 km · Mayenne 81 km · La Chapelle-sur-Erdre 91 km · Carquefou 92 km

France travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type C / E
230 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 77% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$48,986
2025
Happiness
6.6 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
100%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
1.3
per 100k, 2023
Road deaths
5.1
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
High
World Bank
English
Moderate
EF EPI 539
Religion
Roman Catholic 47%none 33%Muslim 4%Protestant 2%

Sources: World Bank, US State Department, World Happiness Report, WHO/UNICEF, EF EPI, CIA World Factbook.

Data sources

Temperature, precipitation, cloud, humidity, wind and solar figures are a 1991–2020 climatology for Rennes (48.1111°, -1.6743°, elevation 39 m), computed from hourly ERA5 reanalysis — contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Sun figures are astronomical calculations, not observations. City data © GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Map outlines from Natural Earth (public domain); interactive map © Google. Sea temperatures are the NOAA OISST v2.1 1991–2020 monthly climatology (public domain), sampled at the nearest ocean point. UV index is derived from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) clear-sky UV data — contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).