Climate averages 1991–2020
Köln weather
in January.
A cold, wet month: the coolest and the 11th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
January is a cold month in Köln: daytime highs average 5.2°C and nights cool to about 0.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the coolest month of the year.
Expect about 90 mm of rain on roughly 15 days, which makes January a wet month (the 11th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 8 h 29 min on an average January day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Leverkusen (11 km away). In January its highs average 5.2°C, about as warm as Köln, with 90 mm of rain.
Among the 120 cities listed in Germany, Köln ranks joint 11th of 120 for the warmest January highs and joint 110th of 120 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 120 cities is 4.2°C; Köln is 0.9°C warmer than that mean.
From January to February, average highs rise by 1.3°C to 6.4°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 90 mm to 74 mm.
The annual picture
January in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Köln climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January, selected | 5.2°C0.5°C | 0.5°C | 90 | 14.8 | 8.58 h |
| February | 6.4°C0.5°C | 0.5°C | 74 | 12.8 | 10.010 h |
| March | 10.0°C2.3°C | 2.3°C | 73 | 13.7 | 11.812 h |
| April | 14.2°C5.1°C | 5.1°C | 52 | 10.8 | 13.814 h |
| May | 18.0°C9.1°C | 9.1°C | 62 | 11.9 | 15.516 h |
| June | 20.9°C12.3°C | 12.3°C | 70 | 12.2 | 16.416 h |
| July | 23.0°C14.6°C | 14.6°C | 80 | 13.1 | 16.016 h |
| August | 22.9°C14.4°C | 14.4°C | 80 | 11.9 | 14.615 h |
| September | 19.1°C11.4°C | 11.4°C | 71 | 11.3 | 12.713 h |
| October | 14.3°C8.1°C | 8.1°C | 83 | 12.8 | 10.811 h |
| November | 9.1°C4.3°C | 4.3°C | 85 | 14.2 | 9.09 h |
| December | 5.8°C1.5°C | 1.5°C | 101 | 16.0 | 8.08 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.
Compare places
January in nearby cities
- Leverkusen in JanuaryGermany · 11 kmHigh 5.2°C · Low 0.6°C · 90 mm rain
- Bergisch Gladbach in JanuaryGermany · 14 kmHigh 4.9°C · Low 0.3°C · 109 mm rain
- Troisdorf in JanuaryGermany · 20 kmHigh 5.2°C · Low 0.6°C · 77 mm rain
- Bonn in JanuaryGermany · 24 kmHigh 5.4°C · Low 0.7°C · 63 mm rain
- Solingen in JanuaryGermany · 28 kmHigh 4.3°C · Low -0.1°C · 98 mm rain
- Remscheid in JanuaryGermany · 32 kmHigh 3.5°C · Low -0.9°C · 104 mm rain
- Düsseldorf in JanuaryGermany · 34 kmHigh 5.3°C · Low 0.6°C · 79 mm rain
- Neuss in JanuaryGermany · 35 kmHigh 5.4°C · Low 0.7°C · 79 mm rain
Read the numbers correctly
Climate, not a promise.
These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.
Sources, method and limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Köln) is explained once on the Köln year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Leverkusen lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.