Climate averages 1991–2020
Manchester weather
in March.
A cool, moderately wet month: the 8th warmest and the 3rd driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
March is a cool month in Manchester: daytime highs average 9.2°C and nights cool to about 2.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the 8th warmest of the 12 months.
Expect about 74 mm of rain on roughly 13 days, which makes March a moderately wet month (the 3rd driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 11 h 49 min on an average March day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Salford (4 km away). In March its highs average 9.2°C, about as warm as Manchester, with 74 mm of rain.
Among the 143 cities listed in the United Kingdom, Manchester ranks joint 103rd of 143 for the warmest March highs and joint 129th of 143 for the driest March (rainfall, lowest first). The mean March high of those 143 cities is 9.5°C; Manchester is 0.3°C cooler than that mean.
From March to April, average highs rise by 2.8°C to 12.0°C, and monthly rainfall falls from 74 mm to 66 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
Manchester climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.4°C1.7°C | 1.7°C | 88 | 15.0 | 8.18 h |
| February | 7.1°C1.5°C | 1.5°C | 78 | 13.5 | 9.810 h |
| March, selected | 9.2°C2.5°C | 2.5°C | 74 | 13.1 | 11.812 h |
| April | 12.0°C4.2°C | 4.2°C | 66 | 12.8 | 14.014 h |
| May | 15.0°C7.2°C | 7.2°C | 69 | 12.8 | 15.916 h |
| June | 17.5°C10.1°C | 10.1°C | 84 | 13.9 | 16.917 h |
| July | 19.2°C12.1°C | 12.1°C | 84 | 15.1 | 16.516 h |
| August | 18.8°C12.0°C | 12.0°C | 89 | 15.2 | 14.815 h |
| September | 16.5°C10.0°C | 10.0°C | 76 | 12.4 | 12.813 h |
| October | 12.9°C7.4°C | 7.4°C | 89 | 14.5 | 10.611 h |
| November | 9.1°C4.3°C | 4.3°C | 88 | 15.3 | 8.79 h |
| December | 6.6°C2.1°C | 2.1°C | 99 | 15.0 | 7.68 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
- Salford in MarchUnited Kingdom · 4 kmHigh 9.2°C · Low 2.4°C · 74 mm rain
- Stockport in MarchUnited Kingdom · 10 kmHigh 9.2°C · Low 2.5°C · 74 mm rain
- Oldham in MarchUnited Kingdom · 10 kmHigh 8.3°C · Low 1.9°C · 70 mm rain
- Rochdale in MarchUnited Kingdom · 16 kmHigh 8.8°C · Low 2.1°C · 74 mm rain
- Bolton in MarchUnited Kingdom · 17 kmHigh 8.9°C · Low 2.4°C · 70 mm rain
- Warrington in MarchUnited Kingdom · 25 kmHigh 9.5°C · Low 3.0°C · 70 mm rain
- Wigan in MarchUnited Kingdom · 27 kmHigh 9.4°C · Low 3.0°C · 67 mm rain
- High Peak in MarchUnited Kingdom · 29 kmHigh 7.9°C · Low 1.6°C · 71 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 Manchester) is explained once on the Manchester year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Stockport, Salford and Rochdale lie in the same rainfall cell, so their rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.