Climate averages 1991–2020
Bilbao weather
in January.
A cool, 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 cool month in Bilbao: daytime highs average 11.9°C and nights cool to about 7.2°C. By daytime temperature it is the coolest month of the year.
Expect about 112 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 9 h 22 min on an average January day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Barakaldo (6 km away). In January its highs average 11.9°C, about as warm as Bilbao, with 112 mm of rain.
Among the 93 cities listed in Spain, Bilbao ranks joint 53rd of 93 for the warmest January highs and joint 84th of 93 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 93 cities is 12.5°C; Bilbao is 0.6°C cooler than that mean.
From January to February, average highs rise by 0.3°C to 12.1°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 112 mm to 101 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
Bilbao climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January, selected | 11.9°C7.2°C | 7.2°C | 112 | 14.8 | 9.49 h |
| February | 12.1°C6.9°C | 6.9°C | 101 | 13.8 | 10.510 h |
| March | 14.0°C8.2°C | 8.2°C | 98 | 13.5 | 11.912 h |
| April | 15.1°C9.5°C | 9.5°C | 97 | 15.2 | 13.413 h |
| May | 17.8°C12.1°C | 12.1°C | 84 | 14.2 | 14.715 h |
| June | 20.3°C14.9°C | 14.9°C | 69 | 11.4 | 15.315 h |
| July | 22.3°C16.9°C | 16.9°C | 60 | 10.4 | 15.015 h |
| August | 23.2°C17.6°C | 17.6°C | 55 | 10.3 | 14.014 h |
| September | 21.5°C15.9°C | 15.9°C | 65 | 11.8 | 12.513 h |
| October | 19.1°C13.7°C | 13.7°C | 97 | 13.9 | 11.111 h |
| November | 14.8°C10.2°C | 10.2°C | 135 | 15.6 | 9.810 h |
| December | 12.6°C8.1°C | 8.1°C | 105 | 14.4 | 9.09 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
- Barakaldo in JanuarySpain · 6 kmHigh 11.9°C · Low 7.0°C · 112 mm rain
- Gasteiz / Vitoria in JanuarySpain · 50 kmHigh 8.5°C · Low 1.4°C · 76 mm rain
- Santander in JanuarySpain · 75 kmHigh 12.5°C · Low 6.1°C · 115 mm rain
- Donostia / San Sebastián in JanuarySpain · 77 kmHigh 11.2°C · Low 6.5°C · 135 mm rain
- Logroño in JanuarySpain · 97 kmHigh 9.3°C · Low 2.0°C · 55 mm rain
- Pamplona in JanuarySpain · 115 kmHigh 8.4°C · Low 1.5°C · 68 mm rain
- Burgos in JanuarySpain · 120 kmHigh 6.8°C · Low 0.3°C · 54 mm rain
- Palencia in JanuarySpain · 191 kmHigh 8.1°C · Low 0.9°C · 42 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 Bilbao) is explained once on the Bilbao year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Barakaldo lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.