At a glance
Quietest month in Belgium: January. Busiest: July, with about 3.1 times as many tourist nights as January. In Ostend, August is warmest (average high 21.7 °C) and November wettest (89 mm of rain).
- January: 4.4%, quieter than average
- February: 5.2%, quieter than average
- March: 6.4%, quieter than average
- April: 9.0%, busier than average
- May: 9.4%, busier than average
- June: 9.2%, busier than average
- July: 13.6%, one of the two busiest months
- August: 13.1%, one of the two busiest months
- September: 8.2%, quieter than average
- October: 8.6%, busier than average
- November: 6.2%, quieter than average
- December: 6.8%, quieter than average
quieter than average busier than average two busiest months · each month's share of Belgium's 2025 tourist nights; an even spread is 8.3% a month
- Weather
- Coldest: February (average low 1.2 °C). Driest: April (41 mm). Month by month
- Prices
- Restaurants and accommodation in Belgium: about 17% above the EU average in 2025. Is Belgium expensive?
- Holidays
- 10 national public holidays in 2026. See the dates · School holidays
- Next
- Plan a trip with your dates
At the OOSTENDEAIRPORT weather station, which we use for Ostend, the warmest month is August (average high 21.7 °C) and the coldest February (average low 1.2 °C), averaged over 1991–2020. The wettest month is November (89 mm of rain). Across Belgium, the quietest month for visitors in 2025 was January.
Ostend weather by month
Averages for 1991–2020 at the OOSTENDEAIRPORT weather station (3 m above sea level), from the WMO climate normals, next to each month's share of Belgium's tourist nights (Eurostat, 2025) in 2025. The shares are for the whole of Belgium, not Ostend alone. These are long-term averages, not a forecast. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain.
| Month | Average high | Average low | Rain | Rainy days | Daylight on the 15th | Share of 2025 (Belgium) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.7 °C | 1.4 °C | 62 mm | 11.8 days | 8 h 25 min | 4.4% |
| February | 7.4 °C | 1.2 °C | 56 mm | 10.3 days | 10 h | 5.2% |
| March | 10.0 °C | 2.8 °C | 46 mm | 9.3 days | 11 h 50 min | 6.4% |
| April | 13.3 °C | 4.8 °C | 41 mm | 8.3 days | 13 h 50 min | 9.0% |
| May | 16.3 °C | 8.5 °C | 54 mm | 9.0 days | 15 h 35 min | 9.4% |
| June | 19.1 °C | 11.5 °C | 63 mm | 9.0 days | 16 h 35 min | 9.2% |
| July | 21.3 °C | 13.3 °C | 68 mm | 9.2 days | 16 h 10 min | 13.6% |
| August | 21.7 °C | 13.1 °C | 82 mm | 9.6 days | 14 h 35 min | 13.1% |
| September | 19.1 °C | 10.7 °C | 73 mm | 9.7 days | 12 h 40 min | 8.2% |
| October | 15.0 °C | 7.7 °C | 80 mm | 12.0 days | 10 h 45 min | 8.6% |
| November | 10.4 °C | 4.7 °C | 89 mm | 13.6 days | 8 h 55 min | 6.2% |
| December | 7.3 °C | 2.2 °C | 86 mm | 13.6 days | 7 h 55 min | 6.8% |
Golden hour and sea temperature
Evening golden hour is our calculation for the 15th of each month of 2026: the time the sun takes to go from 6° above to 4° below the horizon (there is no official definition). The sea figure is the 1991–2020 average sea surface temperature at the open-sea point nearest the weather station (NOAA OISST).
| Month | Evening golden hour (15th) | Sea surface |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1 h 20 min | 7.2 °C |
| February | 1 h 9 min | 6.3 °C |
| March | 1 h 4 min | 6.8 °C |
| April | 1 h 6 min | 9.0 °C |
| May | 1 h 14 min | 11.9 °C |
| June | 1 h 21 min | 14.9 °C |
| July | 1 h 18 min | 17.4 °C |
| August | 1 h 9 min | 18.7 °C |
| September | 1 h 4 min | 17.5 °C |
| October | 1 h 6 min | 14.9 °C |
| November | 1 h 16 min | 11.8 °C |
| December | 1 h 25 min | 9.0 °C |
Public holidays by month
National public holidays from the official list on our holiday page, by month, so you can see them next to the weather and how busy each month was. Regional and local holidays are not included.
| Month | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1 Jan: New Year's Day | 1 Jan: New Year's Day |
| March | – | 29 Mar: Easter Monday |
| April | 6 Apr: Easter Monday | – |
| May | 1 May: Labour Day, 14 May: Ascension Day, 25 May: Whit Monday | 1 May: Labour Day, 6 May: Ascension Day, 17 May: Whit Monday |
| July | 21 Jul: National Day | 21 Jul: National Day |
| August | 15 Aug: Assumption | 15 Aug: Assumption |
| November | 1 Nov: All Saints' Day, 11 Nov: Armistice Day | 1 Nov: All Saints' Day, 11 Nov: Armistice Day |
| December | 25 Dec: Christmas Day | 25 Dec: Christmas Day |
The quietest and busiest months
In 2025, January was Belgium's quietest month (4.4% of the year's tourist nights): at Ostend's station that month averages a high of 6.7 °C, a low of 1.4 °C and 62 mm of rain. July was the busiest (13.6%): average high 21.3 °C, average low 13.3 °C, 68 mm of rain. The visitor figures are for the whole country, and they do not show that the weather makes a month busier or quieter, so we do not say it does.
Similar weather, quieter: ideas for July
July was Belgium's busiest month in 2025 (13.6% of its tourist nights). These places had an average high within 2 °C and rainy days within 3 of Ostend's in July, in a different country, and July took a smaller share of its 2025 tourist nights than July did of Belgium's:
- Rostock, Germany: average high 22.0 °C, 9.4 rainy days; July was 11.7% of Germany's year.
- Rotterdam, Netherlands: average high 22.7 °C, 10.4 rainy days; July was 11.7% of Netherlands's year.
- Karlovy Vary, Czechia: average high 22.6 °C, 10.7 rainy days; July was 13.3% of Czechia's year.
- Oviedo, Spain: average high 23.0 °C, 7.2 rainy days; July was 13.1% of Spain's year.
- Dublin, Ireland: average high 19.5 °C, 11.6 rainy days; July was 13.3% of Ireland's year.
Weather: 1991–2020 averages at each city's weather station (World Meteorological Organization normals in Europe, Japan Meteorological Agency in Japan); a rainy day has at least 1 mm of rain. “Quieter” compares a month with the rest of that place's own year. Try another month or place. All quieter alternatives to Belgium in July.
What these figures are
One weather station stands for Ostend; places nearby can differ, especially by height or distance from the sea. For the rest of Belgium, including regions and holidays, see our Belgium page; for other places, the weather by city list and golden hour by place.
Key takeaways
- Warmest month: August (average high 21.7 °C); coldest: February (average low 1.2 °C).
- Wettest month: November (89 mm); driest: April (41 mm).
- In 2025, January was Belgium's quietest month for visitors and July the busiest.
Sources
Weather normals from the WMO 1991–2020 dataset; daylight and golden hour are our calculations; tourism shares are the country's, from Eurostat. See how we research.
- Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), version 6.6, station OOSTENDEAIRPORT (station ID 00006407), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, normals computed from at least 24 years. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 24 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.
- Daylight: our calculation of the time from sunrise to sunset on the 15th of each month of 2026 at the weather station's location, by the method of the NOAA Solar Calculator (NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, “Solar Calculation Details”, based on Jean Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, allowing 0.833° for refraction and the size of the sun). Read it. Checked 22 September 2026. NOAA notes that calculated times can differ from what is observed.
- Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
- Sea temperature: NOAA Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (OISST) v2.1, 0.25° grid, monthly long-term mean 1991–2020 (file sst.mon.ltm.1991-2020.nc). Data provided by the NOAA/OAR/PSL, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at https://psl.noaa.gov/. Huang, B., C. Liu, V. Banzon, E. Freeman, G. Graham, B. Hankins, T. Smith and H.-M. Zhang (2021), Improvements of the Daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature (DOISST) Version 2.1, Journal of Climate 34, 2923–2939, doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-20-0166.1. Dataset page. Accessed 24 September 2026. Public domain (NOAA PSL disclaimer). The choice of grid cell and the rounding are ours; these are not official NOAA figures, and NOAA does not endorse this site.
Modified data: the rounding, the arrangement, the daylight, golden-hour and sea columns and the quietest/busiest comparison are ours, from the cited figures.