Climate averages 1991–2020
Bournemouth weather
in May.
A mild, moderately wet month: the 5th warmest and the joint 3rd driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
May is a mild month in Bournemouth: daytime highs average 15.5°C and nights cool to about 9.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 51 mm of rain on roughly 10 days, which makes May a moderately wet month (the joint 3rd driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 15 h 29 min on an average May day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Poole (7 km away). In May its highs average 15.4°C, about as warm as Bournemouth, with 51 mm of rain.
Among the 143 cities listed in the United Kingdom, Bournemouth ranks joint 55th of 143 for the warmest May highs and joint 21st of 143 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 143 cities is 15.2°C; Bournemouth is 0.3°C warmer than that mean.
From May to June, average highs rise by 2.6°C to 18.1°C, and monthly rainfall stays at 51 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
Bournemouth climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.1°C4.5°C | 4.5°C | 71 | 12.3 | 8.59 h |
| February | 8.1°C4.1°C | 4.1°C | 54 | 9.9 | 10.010 h |
| March | 9.9°C5.0°C | 5.0°C | 49 | 9.6 | 11.812 h |
| April | 12.4°C6.6°C | 6.6°C | 53 | 10.1 | 13.814 h |
| May, selected | 15.5°C9.5°C | 9.5°C | 51 | 9.7 | 15.515 h |
| June | 18.1°C12.3°C | 12.3°C | 51 | 9.7 | 16.416 h |
| July | 20.1°C14.3°C | 14.3°C | 47 | 9.3 | 16.016 h |
| August | 20.0°C14.6°C | 14.6°C | 63 | 9.4 | 14.515 h |
| September | 17.9°C13.0°C | 13.0°C | 54 | 9.0 | 12.713 h |
| October | 14.5°C10.6°C | 10.6°C | 82 | 11.9 | 10.811 h |
| November | 11.1°C7.5°C | 7.5°C | 84 | 12.2 | 9.09 h |
| December | 8.7°C5.3°C | 5.3°C | 78 | 11.8 | 8.18 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
- Poole in MayUnited Kingdom · 7 kmHigh 15.4°C · Low 9.5°C · 51 mm rain
- Southampton in MayUnited Kingdom · 39 kmHigh 15.9°C · Low 8.8°C · 57 mm rain
- Portsmouth in MayUnited Kingdom · 56 kmHigh 16.0°C · Low 9.0°C · 50 mm rain
- Bath in MayUnited Kingdom · 80 kmHigh 15.5°C · Low 7.8°C · 64 mm rain
- Basingstoke in MayUnited Kingdom · 82 kmHigh 16.0°C · Low 7.9°C · 59 mm rain
- Swindon in MayUnited Kingdom · 93 kmHigh 15.7°C · Low 7.5°C · 61 mm rain
- Bristol in MayUnited Kingdom · 96 kmHigh 15.9°C · Low 8.3°C · 67 mm rain
- Reading in MayUnited Kingdom · 104 kmHigh 16.2°C · Low 8.0°C · 57 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 Bournemouth) is explained once on the Bournemouth year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Poole lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.