Tbilisi runs hotter in summer and milder in winter than most people picture. July averages a daily high near 31°C in a river valley that holds heat like a stone oven, while January sits around 7°C by day with nights just below freezing.
The month figures below are long-run averages from Weather Spark and Climates to Travel, checked August 2026. They are also the least interesting part of the story. What actually catches visitors out is which months misbehave: May is the wettest month of the year, February is one of the driest, September still behaves like summer, and late October falls off a cliff.
December to February: cold, dry, and very short on daylight
Winter here is a three-month plateau rather than a deep freeze. December averages 8°C by day and 1°C at night, January 7°C and just below zero, February 9°C and 0°C. Those are Old Town street-level numbers, and they mean a warm coat rather than expedition gear.
The part nobody mentions is the light. On the December solstice Tbilisi gets 9 hours 9 minutes of daylight against 15 hours 12 minutes in late June, and December and January deliver only about three hours of actual sunshine a day. Rain is barely a factor, at 16 mm in January and 21 mm in December across four wet days each, so the grey you see is cloud rather than downpour. Museums, restaurants and the sulfur baths are not a consolation prize in January, they are the plan.
February is the odd one. It is one of the two driest months of the year at around 18 mm of rain across four wet days, less rain than July and barely half of October, and the sunshine has already started climbing back. It is also the snowiest month, which sounds like a contradiction until you see how thin Tbilisi snow is: a few centimetres over the whole month, in a snowy stretch that runs mid-January to early March and rarely holds for more than a day or two on the pavement. Cheap flights, clear cold mornings, empty viewpoints. Our advice: if you want winter Tbilisi, book February over December and skip the holiday price spike. There is more on the trade-offs in our guide to Tbilisi in winter.
March to early June: the green stretch, and the rain nobody warns you about
March is a scramble. Daytime average climbs to 13.5°C and nights are still near 4°C, rain stays low at about 29 mm, and it is the windiest month of the year. April is when spring lands properly at 19°C by day, and it is also the cloudiest month on the calendar, overcast slightly more than half the time, with 64 mm falling across nine days.
Then May, which is the fact most Tbilisi weather pages get backwards. May is the wettest month of the year, not April: around 83 mm spread over ten wet days, more rain than July and August put together. Datasets disagree on the exact figure, with Climate-Data.org putting May closer to 110 mm, but every source agrees on the ranking. Daytime highs of 24°C and nights of 13°C make it beautiful walking weather. Just do not plan a photography trip around it.
June splits in half. The first two weeks are still spring, warm at 28°C with the last thunderstorms rolling through in the afternoons; the second half is summer with the light stretched to its maximum and 8.5 hours of sunshine a day. The rain total for June looks high on paper at about 84 mm, but it arrives across only eight days, mostly as short evening storms rather than grey drizzle.
Mid-June to early September: the valley does the damage, not the sun
July averages a high near 31°C, August a shade behind at about 30°C, and both hold nights at 20°C. Those numbers alone would not be brutal. What makes midday hard is the geography: Tbilisi sits at 380 to 500 metres in a valley ringed by hills, and stone, asphalt and the enclosed Old Town lanes re-radiate the heat until well past sunset.
The compensation is that summer is the dry season and the clear season. July and August each get five or six wet days, humidity drops to its yearly low of 57%, and August has the clearest skies of any month. Dry 31°C in Tbilisi is a different animal from 31°C in Batumi. Structure the day the way locals do: out by eight, indoors or uphill from noon to five, dinner at nine.
Anyone stuck with August dates should trade a city afternoon for altitude. Gudauri and Stepantsminda sit 1,700 to 2,200 metres up, and the temperature falls by roughly six degrees for every thousand metres you climb, which is a genuinely different day out rather than a marketing line.
Mid-September to November: the best window, then the drop
September is summer with the volume turned down. The average high is 26.7°C, nights sit at 16°C, and rainfall bottoms out at about 35 mm across five days, the driest month of the whole warm season. It also runs into rtveli, the grape harvest, which is the single best reason to pair the city with a Kakheti wine trip in that window.
October is really two different months wearing one name. It opens near 23°C and closes closer to 15°C, averaging out at 20°C by day and 10.6°C at night, with rain creeping back to 46 mm. The last week of October is where the year visibly turns.
Then November takes 7°C off the daytime average in one step, down to 13°C, the steepest month-to-month fall on the Tbilisi calendar. Sunshine collapses from 5.5 hours a day to 3.5. Rain does not spike, but the damp and the early dark do most of the work, and the city goes quiet fast. Book late October and you are gambling on which half of the month you land in.
Which month we would actually book
Two months get sold as the shoulder-season winners, May and September, and they are not equal. Our advice: take September. You get almost the same daytime warmth, 26.7°C against 24°C, but five wet days instead of ten and the year’s lowest warm-season rainfall, plus the harvest. May buys you greener hills and pays for them with the wettest four weeks on the calendar.
Is April worth it? For most trips, no. It is the cloudiest month of the year, overcast more than half the time, with nine wet days and daytime temperatures that have not yet cleared 19°C. The one case where April wins is the botanical garden and the hills around the city, which are at their best before the summer burns them off. If your trip is about photographs of the city itself, wait.
The daily swing is bigger than the seasonal one, in spring
Tbilisi keeps a 10 to 11 degree gap between average high and average low all year, and in April and May that gap is the whole problem. A 24°C May afternoon on a terrace is 13°C by the time you walk home. Pack an evening layer for spring and autumn even when the forecast headline looks summery.
The valley makes its own weather, and the wind is part of it
Wind speeds sit between 17 and 23 km/h in every single month, so this is a consistently breezy city rather than one with a windy season, and March is the peak. The valley funnels it. Locals half-seriously blame the wind for headaches and short tempers, and it changes how the same number feels in both directions: a gusty 30°C afternoon is fine, a gusty 4°C one is not. Mtatsminda and the higher districts run a degree or two cooler and noticeably breezier than the riverbank.
Humidity runs opposite to what you would guess
The hottest months are the driest-feeling ones. Humidity averages 57% in July and August and 76% in December, which is why a damp 5°C November evening bites harder than a still 0°C January morning. That inversion is the main reason November has a worse reputation among visitors than the temperature chart justifies.
Packing, by season
- Winter (Dec–Feb): real coat, gloves, hat, and shoes with grip. The Old Town lanes glaze over after a wet night.
- Spring (Mar–May): layers, a light waterproof, and a compact umbrella you actually carry in May.
- Summer (Jun–Aug): light fabrics, hat, high-factor sunscreen, refillable bottle, plus one warm layer if you are day-tripping to the mountains.
- Autumn (Sep–Nov): summer clothes for September, a proper jacket from mid-October, waterproof shoes for November.
Frequently asked questions
What is the hottest month in Tbilisi?
July, averaging a daily high close to 31°C with nights near 20°C. August is a fraction behind at about 30°C. Peak discomfort is between noon and 5pm, when the valley floor and the Old Town stone give back the heat they absorbed all morning.
What is the rainiest month in Tbilisi?
May, at around 83 mm across ten wet days, which is more than July and August combined. April is second. The rain arrives as short afternoon thunderstorms rather than all-day grey, so it is workable, but May and April are the two months where an umbrella earns its space in the bag.
How many hours of daylight does Tbilisi get?
15 hours 12 minutes on the June solstice and 9 hours 9 minutes on the December one. Sunshine hours tell a sharper story: 8.5 hours a day in June and July against 3 in December and January, which is worth knowing if you are planning to photograph anything in winter.
Does it snow in Tbilisi?
Yes, mostly between mid-January and early March, with February the snowiest month. Totals are small, a few centimetres across the month, and it clears from the streets within a day or two. For actual snow depth, Gudauri is about two hours north by road.
If you are still deciding, work the month backwards from what you want to do rather than from the temperature: harvest and hiking point at September, cheap and clear points at February, and green hills mean accepting May rain. Our best time to visit Tbilisi page weighs the festivals and prices against these numbers, and the full Tbilisi travel guide covers what to do once the dates are fixed.
Featured image: User:Ggia (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Wikimedia Commons.
Leave a Reply