London’s weather is as diverse as its iconic sights. Summers are short and comfortable, with a gentle mix of sun and clouds. Winter, however, stretches on for a long time, bringing icy winds and overcast skies. Throughout the year, temperatures typically range from a chilly 39°F to a pleasant 74°F. It’s rare to experience temperatures below 30°F or above 84°F.
Understanding London’s Temperature Patterns
To give you a clearer picture of London’s weather year-round, we’ve created a visual representation of average hourly temperatures throughout the year. This colorful graph shows the temperature for each hour of each day, helping you visualize how the weather shifts throughout the year.
Finding a Weather Twin: London’s Climate Counterpart
Interestingly, if you’re looking for a destination with similar weather patterns to London, you can travel far, far away to Picnic Point, Washington, United States, a spot 4,774 miles away! This distant location shares surprising similarities with London’s climate.
Deciphering the Sun’s Dance: London’s Solar Patterns
For a deeper understanding of how the sun affects London, we’ve crafted another visual representation: a map depicting the sun’s elevation and azimuth throughout the year. The horizontal axis represents the day of the year, while the vertical axis denotes the hour of the day. The background color shows the sun’s compass bearing at each moment, and the black lines illustrate the sun’s angle above the horizon.
Choosing the Perfect Time to Explore London
To help you plan your London adventure, we’ve designed two travel scores: a tourism score and a beach/pool score. These scores take into account factors like temperature, cloud cover, and precipitation to provide a detailed picture of the most enjoyable weather conditions for various activities.
The Tourism Score: Ideal for General Sightseeing
The tourism score focuses on weather that’s perfect for exploring London’s many sights, prioritizing clear skies and temperatures between 65°F and 80°F. The best time to visit London for general sightseeing is from late June to early September, with the highest score in the third week of July.
The Beach/Pool Score: Perfect for Sun-Loving Adventures
For those seeking warmer weather, the beach/pool score favors clear skies, minimal rain, and temperatures between 75°F and 90°F. If you’re looking to soak up the sun, the best time to visit London is from mid-July to mid-August, with the peak score in the last week of July.
Breaking Down the Scores: Unveiling the Weather Formula
Each score is a combination of individual scores for perceived temperature, cloud cover, and precipitation, calculated for every hour between 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM. These individual scores are then combined into a single hourly composite score, which is further aggregated into days, averaged across the years, and smoothed.
We calculate the cloud cover score based on the degree of cloud cover, with a score of 10 for completely clear skies, dropping linearly to 9 for mostly clear skies, and to 1 for completely overcast skies. The precipitation score takes into account precipitation levels over a three-hour period, giving a score of 10 for no precipitation, decreasing linearly to 9 for trace precipitation, and reaching 0 for 0.04 inches of precipitation or more.
The temperature scores are tailored to specific preferences: The tourism temperature score ranges from 0 for temperatures below 50°F, rising linearly to 9 for 65°F, to 10 for 75°F, falling linearly to 9 for 80°F, and to 1 for 90°F or hotter. The beach/pool temperature score starts at 0 for temperatures below 65°F, rising linearly to 9 for 75°F, to 10 for 82°F, decreasing linearly to 9 for 90°F, and reaching 1 for 100°F or hotter.
