Climate averages 1991–2020
Brighton weather
in May.
A cool, moderately wet month: the 5th warmest and the driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
May is a cool month in Brighton: daytime highs average 14.9°C and nights cool to about 9.1°C. By daytime temperature it is the 5th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 46 mm of rain on roughly 9 days, which makes May a moderately wet month (the driest month of the year). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 15 h 29 min on an average May day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Hove (2 km away). In May its highs average 14.9°C, about as warm as Brighton, with 46 mm of rain.
Among the 143 cities listed in the United Kingdom, Brighton ranks joint 97th of 143 for the warmest May highs and joint 1st of 143 for the driest May (rainfall, lowest first). The mean May high of those 143 cities is 15.2°C; Brighton is 0.3°C cooler than that mean.
From May to June, average highs rise by 2.6°C to 17.5°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 46 mm to 47 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
Brighton climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.7°C3.9°C | 3.9°C | 90 | 14.1 | 8.58 h |
| February | 7.7°C3.6°C | 3.6°C | 64 | 11.2 | 10.010 h |
| March | 9.6°C4.6°C | 4.6°C | 50 | 9.9 | 11.812 h |
| April | 12.0°C6.2°C | 6.2°C | 48 | 9.3 | 13.814 h |
| May, selected | 14.9°C9.1°C | 9.1°C | 46 | 8.5 | 15.515 h |
| June | 17.5°C11.9°C | 11.9°C | 47 | 8.5 | 16.416 h |
| July | 19.6°C14.1°C | 14.1°C | 48 | 8.8 | 16.016 h |
| August | 19.8°C14.4°C | 14.4°C | 62 | 9.3 | 14.615 h |
| September | 17.8°C12.7°C | 12.7°C | 67 | 10.7 | 12.713 h |
| October | 14.5°C10.2°C | 10.2°C | 108 | 13.9 | 10.811 h |
| November | 10.8°C6.9°C | 6.9°C | 116 | 15.3 | 9.09 h |
| December | 8.3°C4.6°C | 4.6°C | 103 | 14.1 | 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
May in nearby cities
- Hove in MayUnited Kingdom · 2 kmHigh 14.9°C · Low 9.2°C · 46 mm rain
- Worthing in MayUnited Kingdom · 17 kmHigh 15.0°C · Low 9.2°C · 47 mm rain
- Eastbourne in MayUnited Kingdom · 31 kmHigh 14.1°C · Low 9.9°C · 47 mm rain
- Crawley in MayUnited Kingdom · 32 kmHigh 16.0°C · Low 8.2°C · 52 mm rain
- Hastings, United Kingdom in MayUnited Kingdom · 51 kmHigh 15.1°C · Low 9.3°C · 47 mm rain
- Guildford in MayUnited Kingdom · 55 kmHigh 16.4°C · Low 8.1°C · 55 mm rain
- Purley in MayUnited Kingdom · 57 kmHigh 16.1°C · Low 7.9°C · 57 mm rain
- Sutton in MayUnited Kingdom · 58 kmHigh 16.2°C · Low 8.0°C · 55 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 Brighton) is explained once on the Brighton year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Hove lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.