Weather and climate – the best time to travel to the Isle of Skye

Climate-Skye Temperature
Climate-Skye Temperature

About Skye:

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» Best time to travel
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The climate on Skye is Scottish. Meaning it changes frequently and you can have wonderful sunny days but also weeks of rain. Nevertheless, there are favorable travel times

Of course, you can read something from the annual averages. So a suitable time to travel to Skye would probably be May. Reason: With only about 14 rainy days, May reaches the annual minimum in this area. In addition, not quite as many tourists come here as in June, July and August.

In October, on the other hand, it rains almost constantly: 23 days the water falls from the sky. This does not relax much in November, December and January. In February, on the other hand, the amount of rainfall on the Isle of Skye subsides almost abruptly, and March is at about the same level as February.

From April onwards the rainfall goes downhill again and the sunshine hours finally increase. In May, the minimum is reached, June and July are at about the same level, which increases again in August and September, see graph:

Climate-Skye sun and rain
Climate-Skye sun and rain

There’s a second reason for May being the best month to travel: because related to the weather is the appearance of midges. The mean beasts bite your skin and always appear in large swarms. More info on midges here. In early mid-May, biting flies are not yet that common on Skye.

By May, moreover, nature is already in vigorous bloom: May and June can see gorse blossom, if you’re lucky. It bathes the slopes of the Highlands in a bright yellow.

Conclusion: The best time to visit Skye is from May to August. September and October have their own charm, because then most tourists have already left Skye and also the mosquito plague decreases more and more. However, the landscape slowly changes from a lush green to a light brown as the ferns wither. In addition, the precipitation increases again.