Climate averages 1991–2020
Ōtsu weather
in May.
A warm, wet month: the 5th warmest and the 8th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
May is a warm month in Ōtsu: daytime highs average 22.1°C and nights cool to about 12.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 153 mm of rain on roughly 12 days, which makes May a wet month (the 8th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 13 h 59 min on an average May day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Kusatsu (9 km away). In May its highs average 22.4°C, about as warm as Ōtsu, with 138 mm of rain.
Among the 303 cities listed in Japan, Ōtsu ranks joint 123rd of 303 for the warmest May highs and joint 191st of 303 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 303 cities is 21.3°C; Ōtsu is 0.8°C warmer than that mean.
From May to June, average highs rise by 3.4°C to 25.4°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 153 mm to 205 mm.
The annual picture
May 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
Ōtsu climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.0°C-0.5°C | -0.5°C | 64 | 7.9 | 10.110 h |
| February | 8.0°C-0.3°C | -0.3°C | 71 | 9.0 | 10.911 h |
| March | 11.8°C2.3°C | 2.3°C | 122 | 12.4 | 11.912 h |
| April | 17.3°C7.3°C | 7.3°C | 133 | 11.7 | 13.013 h |
| May, selected | 22.1°C12.5°C | 12.5°C | 153 | 11.6 | 14.014 h |
| June | 25.4°C17.2°C | 17.2°C | 205 | 14.6 | 14.514 h |
| July | 29.0°C21.6°C | 21.6°C | 239 | 17.6 | 14.314 h |
| August | 30.5°C22.7°C | 22.7°C | 140 | 13.5 | 13.513 h |
| September | 26.3°C18.9°C | 18.9°C | 187 | 12.9 | 12.412 h |
| October | 20.6°C12.8°C | 12.8°C | 161 | 9.9 | 11.311 h |
| November | 15.0°C7.0°C | 7.0°C | 84 | 7.6 | 10.410 h |
| December | 9.5°C1.8°C | 1.8°C | 65 | 7.6 | 9.910 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
May in nearby cities
- Kusatsu in MayJapan · 9 kmHigh 22.4°C · Low 12.9°C · 138 mm rain
- Kyoto in MayJapan · 11 kmHigh 22.6°C · Low 12.9°C · 153 mm rain
- Moriyama in MayJapan · 13 kmHigh 22.1°C · Low 12.7°C · 138 mm rain
- Uji in MayJapan · 13 kmHigh 22.7°C · Low 13.0°C · 153 mm rain
- Kōtari in MayJapan · 17 kmHigh 22.8°C · Low 13.0°C · 153 mm rain
- Jōyō in MayJapan · 18 kmHigh 22.4°C · Low 12.8°C · 129 mm rain
- Ōmihachiman in MayJapan · 25 kmHigh 21.9°C · Low 12.6°C · 148 mm rain
- Kameoka in MayJapan · 26 kmHigh 22.4°C · Low 12.6°C · 154 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 Ōtsu) is explained once on the Ōtsu year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Kyoto, Uji and Kōtari lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.