Spontaneous trip to Vienna and Salzburg next week - questions related to weather.

We visited Vienna and Salzburg in January. Actually both times I've been to Vienna was January. It was a bit cold and breezy. We did enjoy our time to the cities in spite of the chill.

You say Spain. Have you looked at southern Spain? Andalusia area?

Thanks Jules!
We haven't been to Spain, so we wanted to visit Madrid, Barcelona, and if possible Seville (which kinda covers atleast one major city in Andulucia), although it seems Seville is also going to be quite raining next week.

How was your experience in Salzburg in January? I am not too concerned about Vienna, as there will be indoor places we could visit. But for Salzburg, I would want to be outside walking/exploring.

Keep in mind that a 60% chance of rain just means there's a 60% chance of measurable rain at some point during that 24-hour period. It doesn't mean it's predicted to be rainy for 60% of the day.

Weather averages aren't terribly predictive of what you'll encounter on any given day, but the climate-summary charts in the various cities' Wikipedia entries show Salzburg is 12 to 15 degrees (F) cooler than Barcelona, on average, in October and November. Seville is usually warmer than Barcelona and Madrid is typically cooler (but certainly warmer than Salzburg, on average). The Wikipedia charts also show a lot more hours of sunshine in Barcelona than in Salzburg in the fall.

I find the meteorologists are more accurate in predicting temperature than precipitation, so I'd go to Spain and focus on Seville or Barcelona. Unfortunately, those two cities are rather far apart (usually about 7 hours by train). You might want to fly between them, but I myself would hate to have a flight in the middle of such a short trip.

I wouldn't attempt to see all three cities in Spain in the time you have available, which is only five full days. I'd plan on either Barcelona or Seville with a side trip to lovely Cordoba.

With really no evidence, I've always felt longer range forecasts leaned pessimistic. When I'm looking at the daily forecasts, I like to look at hourly. Sometimes the rain will be during the day at a time that I've planned a museum or something. Sometimes the rain is only at night.

I think it would tend to be warmer in Barcelona and Sevilla. I would guess most would prefer "warmish" and rain to "coolish" and rain

I've had trips with a lot of rain. Obviously, my preference is no rain, but I've developed hacks. I like to wear a sun visor under a raincoat hood, it keeps the rain off my face and glasses. I like to bring rain pants, and on heavily rain forecast days, I wear leggings so its easy to pull on the rain pants. I like Allbirds mizzle shoes which are wool and water resistant. I've also recently found Vessi shoes which are completely waterproof (and I've tested this) Also, wool socks dry faster and stink less than cotton.

I live down the road a bit from Vienna and the weather has been decent for tourism the past week. The ten day forecast in Vienna is pretty good. Some rain possible one day (before you arrive) but the rest partly cloudy 42F to 57F. Salzburg about the same but wetter. Budapest, warmer with highs in the low to mid 60's and dry.

All in all sounds fine and you have options.

I'm in Vienna now. I've been here since Monday. Temps were in the 50's and 60' but there has been a lot of wind.

I don't bother with weather forecasts more than a day or two ahead. They are bound to change.

As an example, I was last in Vienna in May. The forecast was for sun most of my stay. I had planned some day trips the last few days of my stay and was looking forward to the sunny weather. It rained every day.

Go to the place that calls to you the most.

According to NOAA, a 5 day forecast is about 90% accurate, a 7 day forecast about 80% accurate, and a 10-day forecast only about 50% accurate. Better than I thought.

But its about season as much as anything. Look and see what you will do in Spain. Too late for the coast, so inland? Look and see what you would do in Vienna .... I suspect its like my hometown down the road and its the start of the cultural high season. Cost? Spain cheaper than Austria. Oh, Salzburg, I keep leaving it out. If I were going to make a thing out of Salzburg and Vienna together I woud want to make a stop or two between and I dont thing the first of November is the greatest time for that .... i mean to get your moneys worth out of it. But I love the season for Vienna.

Well I live in Vienna and it’s already cold here. You’ll want a hat and warm coat at night. In Salzburg, it’s colder. I highly doubt it will rain all day in Spain. For those of us living in Austria, we visit Spain because it is warmer and sunnier than here.

in my part of Southwestern Germany it's been raining almost daily since mid-September. We got half an inch of "partially cloudy" delivered in liquid form yesterday along with 20 mph winds. Only one freeze so far this autumn, but it's coming.

Go where you want. As a Seattle resident I learned you can't let getting wet keep you indoors.

https://www.meteoblue.com/de/wetter/woche/salzberg_%c3%96sterreich_2766826

I would go, but dress appropriately. Pretty miserable in the Oberpfalz, Germany today. In the Alps over 1500m there has been some snow the last days. Makes for a pretty picture. No loss of places to stop in for a coffee or a beer in Vienna and Salzburg. A hat and some gloves might be nice.

Emily's "cold" is subjective. My not so cold is equally subjective. One thing I’ve noticed with colder weather in locations where the colder weather makes up 4 months of the year is that people don’t hide from it or try and survive it. They celebrate it. When you are out and about on the sidewalks with the locals and you hear no one complaining about the cold, you tend not to notice it so much as well. The same temperature in an otherwise warm environment can be uncomfortable for the opposite reasons.

Have look at Lago di Garda webcam for the local weather

Have look at Lago di Garda

This is not a reasonable reference for the weather in Austria.

speaking of wind, I was watching a vlog from someone who had moved to Vienna and they were listing things they didn't like or know about. Shopping hours of course was on the list, but so was the windy season that no one told them about

Phrrd, probably thr same issue we have with it coming down the river. In the summer, its nice. In March ... its challenging.

Thank you all so much for your help and thoughtful advice! In the end, I ended up canceling my trip. Still, all your tips were incredibly helpful and I’ll definitely be better prepared next time!

My favorite site for weather in Austria, where I spend my holidays, is the national tv. It is in German but I found it to be the closest one on the long run, after having tested it year after year. https://wetter.orf.at/oes

Also bergfex.at is not bad and has webcams.

At this time of the year you cannot really draw general rules. Weather may be fine (but in Austria at this time you won't meet high temperatures), it can be rainy, there can be some snow, it can get chilly. No fixed rule but it is leading into winter so do not expect much.