The best time to visit Cornwall

England · scored for a city trip

Britain's south-west tip — surf beaches, fishing harbours and the mildest winters in the country. Daytime highs in Cornwall run from about 9 °C in January to 19 °C in August, an annual range of roughly 10 °C.

Measured against a city trip, the conditions hold up June to September. June is the most consistent single month: highs near 17 °C, nights around 12 °C, and roughly 69 mm of rain across the month.

The binding constraint here is temperature — that is what rules months out, not any composite judgement. January is the weakest month on these criteria.

May, October sit just outside the window — part of the month works and part does not. These are usually the interesting weeks: conditions are close to the peak-season answer while prices and crowds are not. The map lets you check them fortnight by fortnight rather than trusting a monthly average.

Month by month

MonthHigh °CLow °CPrecip mmWet days
January959215.8
February957413.9
March1067213.7
April1276413.1
May1596713.7
June17126913.1
July19146913.0
August19146614.2
September17137211.4
October15119315.8
November12810317.2
December10610816.9

Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a city trip is met across at least half the month.

Open Cornwall on the map →

Nearby regions

Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at Newquay, St Ives, Falmouth, Penzance and Padstow, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.