Galway weather by month
The best time to visit Galway is May to July — 86/100 in July, 19°C and 14 rainy days. The best season is summer, June to August (84/100 on average).
The worst month is December at 52/100 — cold, rainy, clean air. See December →
Updated September 2026 · climate normals from ERA5 reanalysis
Planning the wider trip? Best time to visit Ireland →
Best season: June to August (84/100 on average) · worst December (52/100)
- Days
- 19°C
- Nights
- 13°C
- Wet days
- 14
- Sun
- 8.3 h
- Humidity
- 80%
- Daylight
- 16 h

Galway, month by month
Comfort score out of 100 for the kind of trip Galway is best for, the average high, rainy days and hours of sun a day from the climate normals, and how busy it tends to be.
What's on in Galway through the year
Festivals, natural spectacles, holidays and the seasons to watch out for — curated and sourced. The month pages carry the detail.
- March
- St Patrick's Day parade14–17 MarFestival
- April
- Cuirt literature festival21–26 AprFestival
- May
- Galway Early Music Festival22–24 MayFestival
- July
- Galway Film Fleadh6–14 Jul (usually)Festival
- Galway International Arts Festival13–27 Jul (usually)Festival
- Galway Races25 Jul – 4 Aug (usually)Festival
- September
- Galway Oyster Festival24–30 Sep (usually)Festival
- October
- Macnas Halloween parade25 Oct – 1 Nov (usually)Festival
- November
- Galway Christmas Market14 Nov – 22 Dec (usually)Opening
- December
- Atlantic winter storms1 Dec – 28 Feb (usually)Hazard
Crowds in Galway in July
How busy the place itself is — school and mass holidays, the months an editor tagged, and how sought-after the weather makes them. Never part of the comfort score.
Peak crowdsGalway International Arts Festival, Galway Races, Summer holidays in Ireland(estimated)
Peak crowdsBusyShoulder seasonQuiet
Good to know before you go to Galway
Real experiences from travellers' own write-ups, quoted with a link to the original.
Food & drink
A guide to Galway's live music pub scene points to Monroe's on the West End as a genuine local favorite for traditional Irish music sessions, alongside The Crane Bar, Tigh Neachtain, and Róisín Dubh, all hosting sessions most nights. Their timing tip: sessions typically start around 9pm, so showing up for dinner beforehand and staying on rather than arriving right at opening gets you the room actually filling up with both musicians and a crowd, not an empty pub waiting for the night to start.
Traveller notes on Galway
What people who have been say about the place — the year-round notes first, then month by month.
Forum posters describe January in Galway as very cold, windy, and prone to rain slanting in off the Atlantic, with real potential for snow, ice, and gale-force winds on a given day. Posters are consistent, though, that a good sunny day around 10C isn't dramatically colder than an average summer day here - the range between a bad and good January day is genuinely wide. Posters flag that some attractions and B&Bs close for the month, though the surrounding countryside stays accessible, if often wet and muddy underfoot. Posters consistently recommend proper waterproofs and layers as the essential preparation, describing Irish weather as changeable enough within a single day that flexible clothing matters more than any single forecast. Posters generally rate January as workable with the right gear, but genuinely one of Galway's harsher months.
July in Galway runs to the high teens — around 18°C on average, occasionally into the mid-20s — and the forum's honesty is about rain rather than heat: July can be rainier than May while being warmer, and rain gear is the one thing every poster insists on whatever the month. The record puts it at about fourteen wet days. Their framing is the useful part, though: you will get beautiful days too, and the standing local line is that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing. A light jacket and a sweater for the evenings.
Add your own note from Galway's card on the map.