My wife and I are considering a guided biking trip beginning in Ljubljana, Slovenia and biking to Tarvisio, Italy - Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, Velden, Austria and Salzburg, Austria. We are trying to decide if the weather conditions in these areas during the first 15 days of May, 2024 would be satisfactory for biking and outside activities in these areas. If anyone has traveled in these areas during that time of the year we would appreciate your feedback / guidance as to the weather conditions while you were there. Thank you.
Posted by
San Diego, California
4706 posts
This year May 7-21 was unseasonable, and very rainy in Italy. In Venice, we had 48 hours of non - stop rain and wind. I'm sure you saw the news reports of the flooding in northern Italy, which had been in a drought. The rain blanketed the entire country, moving across Europe. For our two weeks, northern and southern Italy, it rained more than half the days. We tired to stay positive and made a lot of lemonade, but overall it was a disappointing trip. Then once we returned home, we both came down with COVID!
With changing weather patterns, there's really no way to predict next spring. Good luck!
Posted by
City of Seattle
1771 posts
Saluki that's a strange routing. Are those destinations in order?
Edit: never mind - found the tour, looks pretty cool. Bicycle tours that double back or take on inefficient routes are usually good because they prioritize where you are riding over transiting (often through less desirable scenery) over stretched out distances.
Weather-wise I'd definitely give it a shot in late May. 35% chance of precip on any given day, but only 3 inch average month rainfall. So on average it rains ten days in May in that area, and the average amount on each of those days is about .3 inches. That's not bad. Otherwise the weather is ideal for riding a bike.
I also noticed that as the month of May goes on, the chance of rain and amount of rain increases slightly. This tells me that some portion of the May precipitation is from late afternoon thundershowers, a common summertime phenomenon in that area. This is good news for you - your tour will certainly do its riding earlier in the day, so you'll likely be checked into your hotel before thundershowers start. And even it you are out, the rain lasts for 30-90 minutes and you can hide out until it abates.
And keep in mind that thundershower dump large amount of rain!
Therefor on average your chances of riding in clear weather are pretty darn good, a bit better even than my second paragraph might suggest. You can mostly avoid thundershowers, and thundershowers heavily pad to the monthly rainfall total - if you run into a regular rainy day it's very unlikely that it will be heavy.
Looks totally awesome! Thanks for sharing the route - I'm always looking for the next region to explore on a bike.
Posted by
City of Seattle
1771 posts
Of course though bring your waterproof highly breathable shell jacket. The weather tends not to listen to reason ;)
Posted by
8 posts
As you saw, the first two weeks of May this year in the area were very very rainy. I traveled in Croatia and Slovenia with one afternoon in Trieste for the last two weeks of May this year. The weather was unparalleled! Trees and grass green green green and the air fresh. And the waterfalls at Plitvice National Park were splendid.
Can't predict the weather so far in advance. Good luck and happy travels!
Posted by
City of Seattle
1771 posts
Can't predict the weather so far in advance.
Boy, it would be nice if you could though!
Given this May's torrential, destructive rains in that region, it is hard not to look at next May with suspicion. But there's not much more you can do than go with the averages - this May was an anomaly. It's certainly would have scuttled a biking trip in the area, that's for sure. But it was an event. Many standard deviations out of the norm.