Memphis weather by month
The best time to visit Memphis is April, May and October — 89/100 in October, 25°C and 6 rainy days. The best season is autumn, September to November (81/100 on average).
The worst month is January at 60/100 — cold, rainy, clean air. See January →
Updated September 2026 · climate normals from ERA5 reanalysis
Planning the wider trip? Best time to visit United States →
Best season: September to November (81/100 on average) · worst January (60/100)
- Days
- 25°C
- Nights
- 13°C
- Wet days
- 6
- Sun
- 8.6 h
- Humidity
- 66%
- Daylight
- 11 h

Memphis, month by month
Comfort score out of 100 for the kind of trip Memphis 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 Memphis through the year
Festivals, natural spectacles, holidays and the seasons to watch out for — curated and sourced. The month pages carry the detail.
- January
- Elvis' Birthday Celebration6–11 Jan (usually)Festival
- March
- Spring storm season15 Mar – 31 May (usually)Hazard
- April
- Beale Street Music Festival1–3 MayFestival
- May
- World Championship Barbecue13–16 MayFestival
- June
- Summer heat and humidity20 Jun – 31 Aug (usually)Hazard
- July
- Independence Day3–5 JulHoliday
- August
- Elvis Week8–16 AugFestival
- September
- Southern Heritage Classic7–14 Sep (usually)Festival
- Cooper-Young Festival14–24 Sep (usually)Festival
- October
- Fall colour25 Oct – 20 Nov (usually)Nature
- November
- Thanksgiving25–29 NovHoliday
- December
- St. Jude Memphis Marathon5 DecFestival
- Christmas and New Year24 Dec – 1 JanHoliday
Crowds in Memphis in October
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.
Busyone of its best months for weather(estimated)
Peak crowdsBusyShoulder seasonQuiet
Good to know before you go to Memphis
Real experiences from travellers' own write-ups, quoted with a link to the original.
Food & drink
We went to Beale Street on a weeknight specifically to skip the weekend cover charge and crowds, and the more relaxed evening let us actually enjoy the live music spilling out of every doorway. During the day we ducked into A. Schwab's, the oldest building on the street, for its odd assortment of merchandise and an honest-to-goodness old-fashioned soda fountain. Dinner at BB King's Blues Club, fall-off-the-bone ribs with a full band playing, ended up being the meal we talked about most on the drive home. We were surprised to learn you can legally carry a drink down the street itself, which locals treated as completely unremarkable.
Traveller notes on Memphis
What people who have been say about the place — the year-round notes first, then month by month.
Memphis forum threads describe January as genuinely mixed, with a typical high cited around 50F and low near 30F, but posters estimating roughly a one-in-three chance of landing a mild, pleasant stretch instead of the colder default. Real snow was described as rare, maybe once a year and usually light, with rain and simply cold days being far more common than any accumulation. Posters were positive about January as a visit month regardless - the restaurant and entertainment scene runs normally aside from the absence of rooftop and block parties, and major draws like Graceland stay open through the month. The consistent packing advice was real layers to handle the day-to-day swing between cold snaps and milder days.
Regulars call this month genuinely iffy, especially early on, with even late March capable of a shorts-weather day followed immediately by one needing a real jacket. Our row backs the wet, changeable read, a substantial 170.3mm of rain across 10.3 days, alongside mild-cool temperatures, 18.6C over 7.8C nights feeling 5C, and a trace of leftover snow, 0.4cm. This month also sits at the start of the region's severe weather season, when the risk of strong thunderstorms and tornadoes climbs noticeably compared with winter - worth checking local watches and warnings during a visit rather than treating a storm forecast as routine background noise. The record: humidity 69 percent, 7.8 hours of sun, a 19.5 kph wind and AQI 40.
Memphis forum regulars describe April as split by an actual date: shorts-and-flip-flops warm after April 15, the region's last frost date, but genuinely chilly before it. Rain is the bigger constant across the whole month — “spring tends to be rainy, and on average, April is the wettest month” — so rain gear matters more than the temperature swing. The comparison offered for calibration: wetter than October and probably a few degrees colder, with October named as the genuinely best weather month of the year here. Standard mid-April packing is a light jacket and umbrella over short sleeves and a mix of jeans and shorts. Our record: 21.2°C days, 10.8°C nights, 11 rain days and 150.2mm of rain — mild with real, frequent rain, matching the “wettest month” read directly.
Memphis-forum threads call May the better of the spring months for weather, though posters are candid that early spring rain can still be running when the month starts, usually clearing up by late May - which can then tip toward genuinely hot rather quickly. The rain itself comes in bursts, a quick downpour then clear skies again, not long soaking days. Humidity sits around 60-70 percent, noticeable but a step below full summer. May also means the Memphis in May festival month - Beale Street Music Festival the first weekend, then the barbecue contest and the Sunset Symphony - so hotels run busy on those weekends specifically. The record: 27.5C days feeling like 29C, 17.3C nights, 109mm of rain across 8.7 days and 10.5 hours of sun.
September here is two months in one and regulars are precise about the join. The first half is still summer - upper eighties and humid, with the humidity doing the damage rather than the heat - and it is not until the very end of the month that the warmth eases enough to be comfortable outdoors. Mid-to-late September is some of the best weather of the Memphis year, though it can also stay summery into the nineties. Our row averages 30.5C reading as 33C over 20C nights, with 71.8mm across only 5.2 days. September and October together are what they recommend. The record: humidity 68 percent, 10.3 hours of sun and AQI 48.
Memphis's forum calls October the best month of the year, bar none — though regulars are candid it can swing from a 90°F day to a 40°F one, genuinely hard to predict in advance. A light jacket for evenings is the standard recommendation, with a heavier coat only needed if an unusual cold snap moves through.
Regulars give November here as highs in the sixties and lows in the forties, and their packing verdict is precise: no heavy coat, a jacket for the evening. Our 17.5C over 6.3C matches, though the felt figures are 16C and 3C in a 16.7 kph wind. They also describe the month as neither particularly rainy nor particularly sunny, which our row bears out - 82mm across 6.3 days and 7.3 hours of sun inside 10.3 of daylight, the shortest days this city has had since winter. Beale Street has music every night and fills at weekends, which is the only crowd calendar the month has. The record: humidity 70 percent and AQI 33.
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