Climate averages 1991–2020
Istanbul weather
in March.
A cool, moderately wet month: the 9th warmest and the joint 8th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
March is a cool month in Istanbul: daytime highs average 10.8°C and nights cool to about 5.6°C. By daytime temperature it is the 9th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 72 mm of rain on roughly 11 days, which makes March a moderately wet month (the joint 8th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 11 h 55 min on an average March day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Üsküdar (5 km away). In March its highs average 11.0°C, about as warm as Istanbul, with 72 mm of rain.
Among the 138 cities listed in Turkey, Istanbul ranks joint 105th of 138 for the warmest March highs and joint 64th of 138 for the driest March (rainfall, lowest first). The mean March high of those 138 cities is 12.5°C; Istanbul is 1.7°C cooler than that mean.
From March to April, average highs rise by 4.0°C to 14.9°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 72 mm to 47 mm.
The annual picture
March 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
Istanbul climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.2°C4.2°C | 4.2°C | 85 | 12.4 | 9.610 h |
| February | 8.7°C4.1°C | 4.1°C | 70 | 11.7 | 10.611 h |
| March, selected | 10.8°C5.6°C | 5.6°C | 72 | 10.6 | 11.912 h |
| April | 14.9°C8.8°C | 8.8°C | 47 | 8.1 | 13.313 h |
| May | 19.8°C13.6°C | 13.6°C | 35 | 6.1 | 14.514 h |
| June | 24.7°C18.4°C | 18.4°C | 32 | 5.4 | 15.115 h |
| July | 27.5°C21.1°C | 21.1°C | 23 | 3.4 | 14.815 h |
| August | 27.8°C21.8°C | 21.8°C | 20 | 3.2 | 13.814 h |
| September | 23.9°C18.5°C | 18.5°C | 46 | 6.4 | 12.513 h |
| October | 19.1°C14.5°C | 14.5°C | 75 | 9.0 | 11.111 h |
| November | 14.3°C10.1°C | 10.1°C | 72 | 9.6 | 9.910 h |
| December | 10.1°C6.4°C | 6.4°C | 99 | 12.8 | 9.39 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
March in nearby cities
- Üsküdar in MarchTurkey · 5 kmHigh 11.0°C · Low 5.4°C · 72 mm rain
- Şişli in MarchTurkey · 6 kmHigh 11.1°C · Low 4.9°C · 72 mm rain
- Sultangazi in MarchTurkey · 12 kmHigh 10.8°C · Low 4.6°C · 63 mm rain
- Ümraniye in MarchTurkey · 15 kmHigh 10.6°C · Low 5.0°C · 72 mm rain
- Küçükçekmece in MarchTurkey · 15 kmHigh 10.5°C · Low 5.5°C · 63 mm rain
- Başakşehir in MarchTurkey · 17 kmHigh 10.6°C · Low 4.7°C · 63 mm rain
- Esenyurt in MarchTurkey · 23 kmHigh 10.2°C · Low 5.4°C · 63 mm rain
- Sancaktepe in MarchTurkey · 24 kmHigh 11.0°C · Low 5.2°C · 73 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 Istanbul) is explained once on the Istanbul year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Ümraniye, Üsküdar and Şişli lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.