Climate averages 1991–2020

Edinburgh weather
in January.

A cold, moderately wet month: the coolest and the 9th driest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 5.8°C Daytime mean, January

Average low 1.9°C Night-time mean, January

Rainfall 74 mm 14 days with ≥1 mm

Daylight 8 h Sunrise to sunset, per day

January is a cold month in Edinburgh: daytime highs average 5.8°C and nights cool to about 1.9°C. By daytime temperature it is the coolest month of the year.

Expect about 74 mm of rain on roughly 14 days, which makes January a moderately wet month (the 9th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 7 h 40 min on an average January day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is Dundee, United Kingdom (59 km away). In January its highs average 5.3°C, 0.5°C cooler than Edinburgh, with 78 mm of rain.

Among the 143 cities listed in the United Kingdom, Edinburgh ranks joint 137th of 143 for the warmest January highs and 108th of 143 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 143 cities is 6.9°C; Edinburgh is 1.0°C cooler than that mean.

From January to February, average highs rise by 0.5°C to 6.4°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 74 mm to 61 mm.

The annual picture

January in context

30-year average

Average highAverage low°C

Monthly rainfall

Average total · mm

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Edinburgh climate table

1991–2020

Monthly climate averages for Edinburgh, 1991–2020
Month	Average highHigh / low	Average low	Rainfall mm/month	Rain days ≥1 mm/day	Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day
January, selected	5.8°C1.9°C	1.9°C	74	14.0	7.78 h
February	6.4°C1.8°C	1.8°C	61	11.9	9.510 h
March	8.1°C2.6°C	2.6°C	59	12.5	11.812 h
April	10.5°C4.1°C	4.1°C	54	11.6	14.114 h
May	13.3°C6.7°C	6.7°C	56	12.6	16.316 h
June	15.8°C9.7°C	9.7°C	64	13.1	17.517 h
July	17.7°C11.5°C	11.5°C	70	13.6	17.017 h
August	17.4°C11.4°C	11.4°C	75	13.2	15.115 h
September	15.2°C9.7°C	9.7°C	59	11.1	12.813 h
October	11.8°C7.1°C	7.1°C	80	13.0	10.510 h
November	8.4°C4.2°C	4.2°C	71	13.6	8.38 h
December	6.0°C2.1°C	2.1°C	76	13.4	7.17 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

Distance from Edinburgh

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 limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Edinburgh) is explained once on the Edinburgh year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.