Enter your UK postcode to get today's weather and outfit recommendation
The forecast tells you the air temperature. It does not tell you that 8°C in still sunshine and 8°C in a 30 km/h wind off the North Sea are different propositions, or that a light drizzle over an hour will soak a wool coat more thoroughly than a heavy ten minute downpour you can shelter from. Most of the discomfort people put down to bad luck with the weather is actually a mismatch between what the number said and what the day did.
The tool below turns a UK postcode into a live forecast and a starting outfit. Postcodes are resolved through postcodes.io and the forecast comes from Open-Meteo, which publishes a "feels like" apparent temperature alongside the raw air temperature. Nothing is stored on a server: the last postcode you used is kept in your browser so you do not have to type it twice.
The recommendation is a sensible default, not an instruction. What follows underneath it is the part that actually matters: what each temperature band feels like in practice, why the "feels like" figure is usually the one to trust, how to read a UK forecast without over-reading it, and the small number of layering decisions that do most of the work.
Checking the weather...
Temperature bands are a rough guide rather than a rule, because how warm you feel depends on how hard you are working, how long you are outside and how much of you the wind can reach. The ranges below assume an average adult walking at a normal pace, outdoors for twenty minutes or more, in dry conditions. Rain and wind both shift you down a band, sometimes two.
Fingers, ears and the back of the neck lose heat fastest because they have the least insulation and the most surface area for their volume. A heavy coat with bare hands is a worse combination than a moderate coat with gloves and a hat. Metal surfaces, wet leaves and painted lines on the road are the things that catch people out underfoot, so grip matters more than warmth in footwear. If the ground was wet yesterday and the temperature has dropped below freezing overnight, assume ice regardless of what the sky is doing.
Most of the UK winter sits here rather than in the deep cold. This is the band where a thermal base layer earns its place, because it works whether you are standing still on a platform or walking briskly. A coat sized to keep you comfortable while stationary will usually be too warm once you are moving, which is why an insulating mid layer you can unzip beats a single very heavy coat. Add gloves and a hat before you add coat thickness.
This band covers most of autumn, most of spring, and a fair share of British summer mornings. It is deceptive because it feels mild in shelter and cold the moment you step into wind. A jumper plus a shell you can carry is more useful here than a single mid-weight coat, because the difference between a sheltered street and an exposed bridge can be several degrees of perceived warmth. If you will be standing still for any length of time, dress for the bottom of the band, not the top.
At these temperatures direct sun can add several degrees to how warm you feel, and losing it behind cloud takes them straight back. A long-sleeved top with a light jacket covers almost every version of this day. The classic error is dressing for the sunny lunchtime you can see from the window and forgetting the walk home at eight in the evening, when it may have dropped five degrees or more.
Sunburn in Britain is driven by the angle of the sun and the thickness of the cloud, not by the air temperature. The UV index peaks around midday from late spring to midsummer and can reach levels worth taking seriously on a day that never feels hot, particularly near water, on high ground, or under thin bright cloud that feels cool but transmits plenty of UV.
Above roughly 25°C the body relies mainly on evaporating sweat to shed heat. Humid air slows that evaporation down, which is why a muggy 26°C day in Britain can be more unpleasant than a dry 32°C somewhere else. Loose, light-coloured, breathable clothing works better than minimal clothing, because it lets air move across the skin while keeping the sun off it. Most UK buildings and trains are built to retain heat rather than shed it, so plan for the indoor part of the journey too.
Air temperature is measured in the shade, in still air, by a thermometer that is not trying to keep itself at 37°C. You are. The rate at which you lose heat depends on how fast air moves across your skin, how much moisture is in that air, whether the sun is on you and whether your clothing is wet. "Feels like", or apparent temperature, is an attempt to fold those factors into a single figure, and for deciding what to wear it is nearly always the more useful one.
In cold weather the dominant factor is wind. The wind chill formula used by the Met Office and other national services applies when the air temperature is at or below 10°C and the wind is above roughly 5 km/h. The effect is larger than most people expect: 5°C in a 30 km/h wind feels close to 0°C, and 0°C in a 20 km/h wind feels closer to minus 5°C. The relationship is not linear either, so the first ten or fifteen kilometres per hour of wind steal more warmth than the next ten do.
Getting wet compounds it. Water conducts heat away from the body roughly twenty-five times faster than air does, so a soaked jumper is not merely uncomfortable, it is actively cooling you. This is the real argument against cotton in cold or wet conditions: it holds water against the skin and loses most of its insulating value when damp. Wool keeps a useful part of its insulation when wet, and synthetic fleece dries quickly, which is why both outperform a cotton hoodie on a drizzly day at the same thickness.
In warm weather the dominant factor flips to humidity, and in bright conditions direct sunlight can make you feel several degrees warmer than the shaded reading. The apparent temperature shown above accounts for wind, humidity and solar radiation together, which is why it can sit below the air temperature on a blustery March afternoon and above it on a still, humid July one.
The rain percentage is a probability, not an amount. A 40% chance of rain in the two o'clock slot means that in four days out of ten with these conditions, measurable rain fell at that location in that hour. It says nothing about how heavy it would be or how long it would last. Two hours at 40% are not the same as one hour at 80%, and a run of 30% hours across an afternoon is a fairly strong hint that you will meet rain at some point.
Wind speed is usually a mean, and gusts are what you notice. A quoted average around 30 km/h will typically come with gusts around half as much again over open ground, and more where buildings funnel it. If a forecast gives you both figures, dress for the gust.
Daily summaries hide the shape of the day. A single icon and a maximum temperature will average away the cold, clear morning and the wet evening. The hourly view is where the useful information lives, particularly for the two or three hours you will actually be outside.
Accuracy falls off with range. A forecast for the next few hours is very good, the next day or two is good, and beyond about five days it is better treated as a trend than a plan. Britain sits where Atlantic weather systems arrive and reorganise themselves, which is precisely why the timing of a front can move by several hours between one forecast update and the next.
Warnings are about impact, not just severity. The Met Office issues yellow, amber and red warnings based on how likely an event is and how much disruption it would cause. A yellow warning on a Tuesday commute deserves more attention than the same yellow warning on a Sunday when you are not going anywhere.
Separate warmth from weatherproofing. One garment that is both is convenient and inflexible. A jumper or fleece for warmth plus a shell for wind and rain gives you three usable configurations instead of one, and the shell alone is often the right answer on a mild, wet day when a padded coat would leave you sweating.
Dress slightly cool if you are about to move. Walking generates a surprising amount of heat. Being pleasantly warm standing at the front door usually means being too warm ten minutes later, and sweat inside your layers cools you down hard as soon as you stop. Aim to feel slightly underdressed before you set off.
Cover the extremities before you add bulk. Hands, ears and neck are where a disproportionate amount of heat leaves. A hat, gloves and something round the neck weigh almost nothing and can be removed in seconds, which makes them far more adaptable than a thicker coat.
Solve for the worst part of the journey. Waiting on an open platform, standing at the school gates or cycling into a headwind is what determines what you need, not the door-to-door average. This is the reasoning behind the commuting toggle above: it assumes more time stationary and outdoors, and dresses you accordingly.
The full guide goes into fabrics, seasonal wardrobes and regional differences in more depth, and the FAQ answers the specific questions people ask most often.
It depends on the weather! Enter your postcode above to get a personalised outfit recommendation based on today's temperature, rain, and wind conditions in your area.
For rainy and cold UK weather, layer up! Start with a base layer, add a jumper or fleece, and top with a waterproof jacket. Don't forget waterproof shoes and an umbrella. When it's below 5°C, add a warm coat, scarf, and gloves.
Commuting mode assumes you'll be waiting outside for transport and walking more, so recommendations include extra weather protection. Staying local assumes shorter outdoor exposure with quicker access to shelter.
We use reliable weather API data for UK locations. Weather can change quickly, so check back in the morning for the most up-to-date recommendation!