Climate and average weather in Bournemouth

In Bournemouth, the summers are mild, showery, and partly cloudy and the winters are cool, breezy, and mostly cloudy.

Best: late May to late September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Bournemouth typically varies from 4°C to 20°C, and is rarely below -0°C or above 24°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 Bournemouth for warm-weather activities is from late May to late September.

Hottest
Jul
20°
Coldest
Jan
Wettest
Nov
84 mm
Driest
Jul
47 mm
Rain / yr
736 mm
125 wet days
Daylight
7.7–16.3 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
19 m
50.7°N
Clearest
Jul
64% cloud

Bournemouth is town and civil parish in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, Dorset, England.

Air quality
Moderate
PM2.5 10.8 µg/m³ · 2019
Density
3,543/km²
people per km²
Founded
1810

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

Bournemouth 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 Bournemouth, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

The hot season lasts 3.5 months, from June 9 to September 21, with daily high temperatures above 17°C. The hottest month of the year in Bournemouth is July, with an average high of 20°C and low of 14°C.

The cool season lasts 3.8 months, from November 24 to March 19, with daily high temperatures below 10°C. The coldest month of the year in Bournemouth is January, with an average low of 4°C and high of 8°C.

Days typically run about 5°C warmer than nights year-round.

-5°10°15°20°25°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan84
Feb84
Mar105
Apr127
May159
Jun1812
Jul2014
Aug2014
Sep1812
Oct1510
Nov117
Dec95

How hot and cold Bournemouth 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 -0°C (around January 28), with roughly 28 freezing days a year (feels-like at or below 0°C), worst in January.

-5°10°15°20°25°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan8804
Feb8804
Mar101015
Apr121237
May151579
Jun18181212
Jul20201414
Aug20201414
Sep18181212
Oct1515910
Nov111147
Dec9915

Average hourly temperature in Bournemouth

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 20°C, and coldest before dawn in January, near C.

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

Bournemouth 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 / 7112.30.38.31.3
Feb / 539.80.59.71.4
Mar10° / 499.60.411.52.2
Apr12° / 5310.10.113.53.3
May15° / 519.7015.24.6
Jun18° / 12°519.7016.25.7
Jul20° / 14°479.3015.86.3
Aug20° / 14°639.4014.36.3
Sep18° / 12°549012.45.8
Oct15° / 10°8211.9010.44.1
Nov11° / 8412.208.72.6
Dec / 7811.80.27.81.6

Chance of rain

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

Bournemouth gets about 736 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 4.7 months, from around Sep 25 to Feb 15, peaking in January at about 42% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jul 19.

November is the wettest month by volume, with 84 mm over about 12 wet days; July is the driest, with 47 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetJan 11 · 42%Jul 19 · 27%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan3912
Feb3510
Mar3110
Apr3210
May3310
Jun3310
Jul299
Aug309
Sep309
Oct3812
Nov4112
Dec3912

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Bournemouth collects about 736 mm of rain across 125 wet days — roughly 61 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. November is the wettest month with 84 mm, while July is the driest at just 47 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 33% of the year’s total, and some of the cold-season precipitation falls as snow.

0255075100JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec715349535151476354828478
Rainfall (mm)Rain daysSnow days
Jan71120
Feb53101
Mar49100
Apr53100
May51100
Jun51100
Jul4790
Aug6390
Sep5490
Oct82120
Nov84120
Dec78120

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

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

The clearer part of the year begins around June 21 and lasts for 3.3 months, ending around September 28. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 39% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 29 and lasts for 5.8 months, ending around March 25. The cloudiest month is February, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 70% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJul 28 · 42%Feb 1 · 27%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan3169
Feb3070
Mar3268
Apr3961
May3565
Jun3466
Jul3961
Aug3961
Sep3565
Oct3367
Nov3070
Dec3169

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 18, brings about 16 h 18 min of light; the shortest, around December 18, only 7 h 42 min — a swing of roughly 8 h 36 min.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan8.38:114:23
Feb9.77:315:13
Mar11.56:316:03
Apr13.55:216:54
May15.24:267:42
Jun16.24:018:15
Jul15.84:188:09
Aug14.35:017:22
Sep12.45:516:13
Oct10.46:405:05
Nov8.77:334:13
Dec7.88:113:56

Sunny days

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

Bournemouth gets about 5 sunny days a month gloomy — and it barely shifts through the year, holding between 4 and 7 days every month. Clear skies here are a flat line, not a season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgloomymixedJul 247 daysMar 14 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan5Gloomy
Feb4Gloomy
Mar5Gloomy
Apr6Gloomy
May5Gloomy
Jun5Gloomy
Jul6Gloomy
Aug6Gloomy
Sep5Gloomy
Oct5Gloomy
Nov5Gloomy
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 Bournemouth, the air stays dry or comfortable essentially all year. Even in August, the muggiest month, it feels humid or worse only about 14% of the time — humidity is not something you need to plan around here.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecMay 30 · 100%Aug 8 · 83%humidcomfortabledrycomfortablehumidcomfortable
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan100000
Feb100000
Mar100000
Apr100000
May95500
Jun752420
Jul434890
Aug4144141
Sep662940
Oct841600
Nov98200
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 Bournemouth is typically light breeze, near 18 km/h, and varies moderately with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 5.7 months, from around Oct 5 to Mar 27. The windiest month is January, averaging about 20 km/h (breezy).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Mar 28 to Oct 4, with July the calmest month at about 15 km/h.

0510152025JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwindiercalmerwindiercalmlight breezebreezyJan 8 · 21 km/hJul 26 · 15 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan20breezy
Feb20light breeze
Mar18light breeze
Apr17light breeze
May16light breeze
Jun15light breeze
Jul15light breeze
Aug15light breeze
Sep17light breeze
Oct18light breeze
Nov19light breeze
Dec20breezy

Best time to visit Bournemouth

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around mid September, Bournemouth 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 Bournemouth for general outdoor tourist activities is from late May to late September, with a peak score in the last week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 23 · 6.5

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
Jan1.3poor
Feb1.4poor
Mar2.2poor
Apr3.3poor
May4.6fair
Jun5.7good
Jul6.3good
Aug6.3good
Sep5.7good
Oct4.1fair
Nov2.6poor
Dec1.6poor

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 Bournemouth for hot-weather activities is from early July to late August, with a peak score in the last week of July.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 28 · 3.7

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 Bournemouth, 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 20°C), the essentials are rain gear and sun protection. In the cold season around January (highs near 8°C), pack a warm layer, rain gear and a windbreaker.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In July, Bournemouth sees daytime highs around 20°C and nights near 14°C. Worth packing: rain gear and sun protection. About 9 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Bournemouth

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

The sea offshore is warmest in August at about 18°C and coldest in March near 8°C.

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

5°10°15°20°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbracingcool
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan9Bracing
Feb8Bracing
Mar8Bracing
Apr9Bracing
May11Bracing
Jun14Bracing
Jul16Cool
Aug18Cool
Sep17Cool
Oct16Cool
Nov13Bracing
Dec11Bracing

UV index (midday) in Bournemouth 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 Bournemouth peaks around August 13 at about 6 (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 6 months of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecLowModerateHighModerateLowAug 13UV 6Jan 1UV 1
UV index (midday)Level
Jan1Low
Feb1Low
Mar3Moderate
Apr4Moderate
May6High
Jun6High
Jul6High
Aug7High
Sep4Moderate
Oct2Moderate
Nov1Low
Dec1Low

Average hourly UV index in Bournemouth

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 August the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 7 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 2 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
Mar00
Apr4.50
May6.50
Jun7.51
Jul70
Aug72
Sep4.50
Oct00
Nov00
Dec00
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

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

Bournemouth is mild enough that a frost-free day stays more likely than not even in midwinter. Nights are reliably above freezing from about February 11 to January 26 (350 days); outside that window a hard frost is an occasional risk.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecreliably frost-freereliably frost-freeFeb 1190%Jan 2690%
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan9210
Feb9012
Mar970
Apr1000
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct1000
Nov980
Dec936

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. Bournemouth banks about 890 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around August.

02004006008001,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan0
Feb0
Mar0
Apr3
May71
Jun150
Jul218
Aug220
Sep154
Oct71
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.

Bournemouth receives about 3.1 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — moderate — with a clear seasonal swing between 0.7 and 5.6 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 5.9 months, from around Mar 23 to Sep 18. The brightest month is June, averaging about 5.6 kWh/m² (bright).

The dimmest month is December, down near 0.7 kWh/m² — roughly 87% less than the June peak.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmerbrighterdimmerdimmoderatebrightintenseJun 225.6 kWhDec 210.7 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan0.9Dim
Feb1.6Dim
Mar2.8Moderate
Apr4.4Bright
May5.3Bright
Jun5.6Bright
Jul5.3Bright
Aug4.5Bright
Sep3.3Moderate
Oct1.9Dim
Nov1.1Dim
Dec0.7Dim

Where is Bournemouth?

Bournemouth sits at 50.7°N, 1.9°W, 19 m above sea level, in United Kingdom. The nearest listed city is Christchurch, 7.0 km away.

What Bournemouth looks like

Topography around Bournemouth

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Bournemouth has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 63 m around an average of 25 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 201 m; within 80 km, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 307 m.

The land around Bournemouth is covered by water (35%), trees (32%) and artificial surfaces (27%) within 3 km, water (38%), grassland (24%) and trees (22%) within 16 km, and water (37%) and grassland (29%) within 80 km.

3 km
63 m
16 km
201 m
80 km
307 m
treesgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrainwaterwetland
Nearby: Christchurch 7.0 km · Poole 7.0 km · Ferndown 10 km · Wimborne Minster 10 km · New Milton 16 km · Totton 35 km · Hythe 37 km · Dorchester 39 km

United Kingdom travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type D / G / M
230 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 89% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$57,602
2025
Happiness
6.7 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
100%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
1.1
per 100k, 2021
Road deaths
3.2
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
High
World Bank
Religion
Christian 60%none 26%Muslim 4%other 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 Bournemouth (50.7205°, -1.8795°, elevation 19 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).