Climate - Kiel (Germany)

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The climate of Kiel is sub-oceanic, humid and rainy, influenced by currents from the Atlantic and the North Sea, with cold, gray winters and cool to mild summers.
The city is the capital of Schleswig-Holstein and is located in a bay overlooking the Baltic Sea. We are in the northernmost part of Germany, on the Jutland peninsula, which separates it from Denmark.
The wind blows frequently, and can be intense, especially from November to March.
The average temperature of the coldest month (January) is of 1.7 °C (35 °F), that of the warmest month (July) is of 17.7 °C (64 °F). Here are the average temperatures.

Precipitation amounts to 760 millimeters (29.9 inches) per year: so, it is at an intermediate level. It ranges from 40 mm (1.6 in) in the driest month (April) to 85 mm (3.3 in) in the wettest (July). Here is the average precipitation.

Although the winter is not very cold for the latitude, it is often humid, windy and rainy. There may be relatively mild periods, when Atlantic currents prevail, and other colder periods, when the temperature drops below freezing and it can snow.
Sometimes, there can be cold spells, in which temperatures can drop as low as -10 °C (14 °F) or even below. In fact, Scandinavian high pressure systems can reverse the normal circulation and bring very cold periods, which in the past were more frequent. The cold record is -25 °C (-13 °F), set in February 1940. More recently, the temperature dropped to -20.5 °C (5 °F) in February 1956, and to -18 °C (-0.5 °F) in February 1986 and in February 2012.
Even in spring, until April or the first half of May, there is often cold and unstable weather.
In summer, the temperatures are generally pleasant and lend themselves to outdoor activities, although there are cool and rainy periods, and sometimes thunderstorms can break out.
At times, hot periods can occur, generally of short duration, which in recent years are becoming more frequent due to global warming, and in which the temperature can exceed 28 °C (82 °F). However, given the latitude and the short distance from the sea, the heat is less intense and lasting than in the central-southern German plains. On the hottest days of the year, the temperature typically reaches 30/31 °C (86/88 °F). The heat record is 35 °C (95 °F), set in August 2018.



On average, there are around 1,675 sunshine hours per year. Here are the average sunshine hours per day.

The latitude of Kiel (54°19'N) is not high enough to observe the phenomenon of the white nights, in which the sun sets but it does not get completely dark even at midnight.
On June 21, the longest day of the year, the sun rises at 4:45 am and sets at 9:55 pm. On December 21, the shortest day of the year, the sun rises at 8:50 am and sets at 3:55 pm.
The sea temperature ranges between 2 °C (35 °F) and 18 °C (65 °F). So, it never becomes warm for swimming. Here are the average sea temperatures.

Best Time

The best time to visit Kiel runs from mid-May to mid-September, since it is the warmest and sunniest period of the year. Sometimes, it can be hot in July and August, while in other circumstances, nights can be cool or even a little cold even in these months, so it can be useful to bring a sweatshirt or sweater and a light jacket.