Athens Marathon weather and what to wear

The short answer: what weather to expect

Two questions are easy to mix up: what the weather is usually like in early November, and what it will be on 8 November 2026. This page answers the first with numbers and says plainly that it cannot yet answer the second: on 29 September 2026, when this page was written, there was no forecast for race day; once one exists it takes precedence over this page, which does not update itself. The organiser itself, on its Athens page, gives only a general monthly picture (average November temperature 9–17 °C, average humidity 74.3) and points to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (hnms.gr) for weather updates.

In the modelled record for 1–15 November (30 years, 450 days) central Athens averages a daily high of 19.3 °C and a daily low of 12.0 °C; the Marathon area (a model cell about 10 km from the actual start, see Method) averages 19.6 °C and 12.4 °C. Rain of 1 mm or more falls on about 18% of days in Athens (20% in the Marathon area) and 10 mm or more on about 5% (4%). The difference that stands out between the two points is wind, but its size depends on the model: with Open-Meteo’s default series the average of each day’s maximum wind is 17.1 km/h in the Marathon area against 14.2 km/h in Athens, while with a consistent ERA5 series it is 15.6 against 14.5 km/h. The safe conclusion is that the model shows somewhat stronger wind towards Marathon, by roughly 1–3 km/h.

One more limit: the 1–15 November window is the warmer and less rainy half of the month. For the whole of November (1996–2025) the same model and point give Athens an average high of 18.1 °C, an average low of 11.1 °C and 1 mm of rain or more on 23% of days; for 16–30 November 16.8 °C, 10.3 °C and 28%. That picture (a cool and often wet November) fits our visitor guide, which cites Weatherspark (/en/articles/athens-marathon-travel-spectator-guide); the two pages do not contradict each other, they describe different parts of the month.

Method: where these numbers come from and how far to trust them

• Source: the Open-Meteo Historical Weather API with its default “best match” model, which according to Open-Meteo’s documentation combines ERA5, ERA5-Land and, from 2017, the 9 km IFS model (the documentation recommends ERA5 or ERA5-Land for consistent data over several decades). The series is therefore not homogeneous: at the Marathon-area point the average daily maximum wind is 15.5 km/h in 1996–2016 and 21.0 km/h in 2017–2025 (Athens: 14.4 and 13.8), and the average daily minimum temperature 11.9 and 13.6 °C (Athens: 11.8 and 12.4). With one consistent model (models=era5_seamless) the wind averages are 15.5 and 15.9 km/h (Marathon area) and 14.4 and 14.6 km/h (Athens). These are modelled grid-cell values, not thermometer readings at the start line or at the Stadium, and the wind and temperature values for the Marathon area depend on the model.
• Period: 1–15 November of each year 1996–2025 (30 years, 450 days per location). The race-Sunday list covers 2015–2025, i.e. 10 editions; 2020 is missing because, per an organiser announcement published by AIMS on 2 October 2020, the race was cancelled. We treat the second Sunday of November as race day, matching the organiser’s “every 2nd weekend of November”; we did not open a separate official page for each year’s date.
• Locations: central Athens (37.996 N, 23.710 E, temperatures adjusted to 99 m elevation) and a second point that we call the “Marathon area” for short (38.207 N, 24.049 E, adjusted to 1 m). The second point is a model cell about 10 km (9.7 km) north-east of Marathon town (38.1533 N, 23.9619 E, Wikipedia coordinates), not the start line; the API’s own elevation for it is 51 m. A query at the coordinates of Marathon town returns a different cell (38.067 N, 23.984 E) with an average high of 19.5 °C, an average low of 12.2 °C and an average daily maximum wind of 16.6 km/h for 1–15 November (against 19.6 / 12.4 / 17.1), so the “Marathon area” figures are approximate and not a measurement at the start. If the API’s own default elevation is used instead (44 m for Athens, 51 m for the second point), the averages move by a few tenths of a degree (Athens 19.5 / 12.2 instead of 19.3 / 12.0; second point 19.3 / 12.2 instead of 19.6 / 12.4), and with plain ERA5 on its 0.25° grid Athens comes out at 20.9 / 12.9 °C.
• Definitions: “high/low” is each day’s maximum and minimum 2 m temperature; percentiles are taken over the 450 daily highs; a “wet day” is a daily total of ≥ 1 mm (≥ 10 mm for heavy rain); wind is the daily maximum of hourly 10 m wind speed, averaged over the days; hourly figures are model values at the local clock hour; Open-Meteo’s hourly precipitation is the sum of the preceding hour, so “08:00–18:00” below adds the hourly values labelled 09:00 to 18:00.
• Cross-check: the HNMS normal-values table for the Ellinikon station (coastal, south Athens, 46 m) covers the whole of November and gives a 19 °C high, 12 °C low and 15 °C mean (rounded; the table does not state its averaging period). Our window is only 1–15 November, which is warmer than the month as a whole, so the figures are of the same order but not directly comparable. For the whole of November (1996–2025) the same model gives 18.1 and 11.1 °C at the Athens point and 18.6 and 12.7 °C at the station’s coordinates (37.8899 N, 23.7421 E, 46 m), i.e. within about 1 °C of the HNMS 19 and 12 °C. The model’s mean humidity on race Sundays (75.6% in Athens) is close to the 74.3 the organiser quotes.
• Limits: this is not a forecast. A single day can sit far outside the 10th–90th percentile range: in the full dataset the lowest daily high in Athens was 7.2 °C and the highest 27.8 °C.

Athens vs the Marathon area: the 1–15 November statistics

• Athens, 1996–2025: average high 19.3 °C, average low 12.0 °C, 10th–90th percentile of highs 15.7–23.1 °C. A high of at least 25 °C on 4% of days; a high of 16 °C or less on 11%.
• Marathon area, 1996–2025: average high 19.6 °C, average low 12.4 °C, 10th–90th percentile of highs 15.6–24.1 °C. A high of at least 25 °C on 6% of days; 16 °C or less on 14%.
• Rain: Athens 18% of days with at least 1 mm and 5% with at least 10 mm; Marathon area 20% and 4%. Over the more recent 15 years (2011–2025) Athens comes out at 19.8 / 12.3 °C with 19% and 6%.
• Wind: the average daily maximum wind is 14.2 km/h in Athens and 17.1 km/h in the Marathon area with the default series (2011–2025: 14.4 and 19.2 km/h). The gap widens from 2017, when the default series changes model (see Method): with a consistent ERA5 series it is 14.5 and 15.6 km/h. The model therefore shows a somewhat windier Marathon area, by roughly 1–3 km/h depending on the model.
• Temperature barely differs between the two points (0.3 °C in the average highs); the one difference that stands out is wind, and its size depends on the model.

Hour by hour: from the 08:30 start to the 18:15 limit

The official facts from the Marathon page, as read on 29 September 2026 (indicative times, to be finalised two weeks before the race): start at 08:30, 16 consecutive starts (15 blocks plus a separate one for participants with disabilities) with indicative times from 08:30 to 10:09 and the last runner crossing the start line at 10:15. The time limit is 8 hours and all finishes are completed by 18:15. The week-programme page lists the race as “8:30–18:20”; we use the route page’s times and the official announcement prevails wherever they differ.

The organiser’s buses, boarding points and the exact departure windows per block (as read on the official page on 29 September 2026) are covered in our start article (/en/articles/athens-marathon-start-buses-block-times). What matters for the weather: sunrise on 8 November is at 06:58 and sunset at 17:19 (MET Norway, central Athens), so the first buses, from 05:00, leave in the dark and the last runners finish after sunset; runners must be in their block 15 minutes before their start.

Typical model temperatures by local clock hour, average of 1–15 November 1996–2025 (10th–90th percentile in brackets):

• Marathon area (model cell): 06:00 13.0 °C (9.5–16.3) · 09:00 13.5 °C (9.8–17.0) · 10:00 15.3 °C (12.3–18.7) · 12:00 18.0 °C (14.4–21.9) · 15:00 19.3 °C (15.1–24.0) · 18:00 17.5 °C (13.9–21.6).
• Athens: 09:00 13.0 °C (9.2–16.9) · 10:00 14.8 °C (11.4–18.4) · 12:00 17.5 °C (14.2–21.0) · 15:00 19.0 °C (15.3–22.9) · 18:00 17.6 °C (14.1–21.4).
• Average 10 m wind speed in the Marathon area (default series): 09:00 10.7 km/h · 10:00 11.6 km/h · 12:00 14.3 km/h · 15:00 14.5 km/h. In Athens: 09:00 8.2 km/h · 10:00 8.2 km/h · 15:00 12.0 km/h.
• The reading: the day warms by about 4–6 °C from the start, depending on the block: from about 13 °C at 09:00 and about 15 °C at 10:00 to about 19 °C in the afternoon. On one day in ten the 09:00 temperature is below roughly 9–10 °C. Runners in the first blocks start in the coolest part of the morning; the last blocks (13–15, indicatively 09:57–10:09) start at about 15 °C and, if they use the full limit, are still running at 18:15, after sunset.

The 2015–2025 race Sundays, one by one

Model numbers for each race Sunday: high/low temperature, daily rain total and maximum wind, Athens first and then the Marathon area (a model cell about 10 km from the start). They are the model’s estimate for the day, not observations of the race itself. For the Marathon area the wind and minimum-temperature values for 2017–2025 come from the part of the default series where the model changes (see Method), so read them as indicative. “08:00–18:00” adds the hourly rain values labelled 09:00–18:00.

• 2015 (8 Nov): Athens 18.4 / 9.9 °C, 0.0 mm, 14.9 km/h · Marathon area 18.6 / 11.3 °C, 0.0 mm, 17.7 km/h.
• 2016 (13 Nov): Athens 18.6 / 12.2 °C, 0.6 mm, 18.5 km/h · Marathon area 19.9 / 13.6 °C, 0.1 mm, 16.3 km/h.
• 2017 (12 Nov): Athens 19.8 / 14.0 °C, 0.3 mm, 15.9 km/h · Marathon area 20.6 / 16.4 °C, 0.2 mm, 23.9 km/h.
• 2018 (11 Nov): Athens 19.9 / 8.6 °C, 0.0 mm, 9.6 km/h · Marathon area 18.6 / 12.8 °C, 0.0 mm, 18.3 km/h.
• 2019 (10 Nov): Athens 20.8 / 15.7 °C, 11.0 mm (10.4 mm between 08:00 and 18:00), 25.2 km/h · Marathon area 21.8 / 14.9 °C, 0.8 mm, 28.4 km/h.
• 2021 (14 Nov): Athens 17.3 / 10.3 °C, 0.0 mm, 10.0 km/h · Marathon area 18.1 / 10.5 °C, 0.0 mm, 11.6 km/h.
• 2022 (13 Nov): Athens 19.0 / 8.8 °C, 0.0 mm, 9.9 km/h · Marathon area 18.9 / 12.6 °C, 0.0 mm, 18.0 km/h.
• 2023 (12 Nov): Athens 21.7 / 14.7 °C, 0.7 mm, 14.8 km/h · Marathon area 24.1 / 13.2 °C, 0.0 mm, 13.7 km/h.
• 2024 (10 Nov): Athens 16.9 / 8.4 °C, 0.0 mm, 12.0 km/h · Marathon area 15.2 / 12.3 °C, 0.0 mm, 27.6 km/h.
• 2025 (9 Nov): Athens 21.4 / 15.9 °C, 8.2 mm (3.2 mm between 08:00 and 18:00), 14.2 km/h · Marathon area 22.4 / 16.6 °C, 1.3 mm, 22.6 km/h.
• Summary for Athens: the 10 Sundays average a 19.4 °C high and an 11.9 °C low; the warmest was 21.7 °C (2023) and the coolest high 16.9 °C (2024). More than 5 mm of rain fell on 2 of the 10 (2019 and 2025); in the Marathon area no Sunday exceeded 1.3 mm.

What the official race rules mean for your clothing

The official facts that decide what you wear and what you carry, as read on the organiser’s pages on 29 September 2026:

• Jacket: the entry pack of Marathon runners, at both registration levels, lists a “disposable thermal waterproof jacket with hood”. It does not apply to the 10 km and 5 km races.
• Clothing bag: on race day there is no clothing-bag collection service at the start, so whatever you wear or hold at the start stays with you to the finish unless you leave it in a bin. Where and when the bag is handed in and where it is collected after the finish is covered in our EXPO article (/en/articles/athens-marathon-expo-bib-pickup-faliro) and our start article (/en/articles/athens-marathon-start-buses-block-times).
• Clothing bins: at the start there are special bins for “spare and light clothing”, which the organiser collects and donates to a charitable cause, plus recycling bins for ponchos and bottles. The English page places the clothing bins at the first two blocks, the Greek page at blocks 2–5, so check the official start-area map before relying on them if you start further back.
• After the finish: the organiser’s medical page advises heading quickly to the pick-up area, taking your backpack and putting on dry, warm clothes; the isothermal blanket is only a temporary measure and, the organiser adds, is not sufficient to prevent colds or hypothermia.

What the organiser says about weather, pace and fluids

These are the organiser’s own instructions, not bib2bib medical advice. Its medical advice page says to dress appropriately for the weather, to wear shoes you have already run in and clothes that have been used and washed at least once, and to revise the race plan with a slower pace when conditions are unfavourable or deviate from the usual for the season (heat, humidity and above all a combination of both).

On fluids, the page says a cool day usually requires no more than 500 ml per hour, while the fastest athletes (under 3 hours 30 minutes) may need up to one litre per hour on a hot day. It also warns that excessive fluid intake can lead to hyponatremia. Needs vary between athletes and depend, it says, above all on the climatic conditions of the day.

Under the general terms of participation the event takes place on the announced day and time regardless of weather; only in exceptional circumstances or force majeure may SEGAS and the Organizing Committee decide to postpone the start time or cancel the event.

Turning the numbers into choices, and where to read the real forecast

Our reading of the data, not an organiser rule: the start is the coolest point of the day for anyone who has not started moving yet, and the afternoon is about 4–6 °C warmer depending on the block. One way to read this is a layer you can leave behind, and the combination of a disposable jacket in the kit, bins at the start and no bag at the start line leaves no way to pick something up later on race day. If the forecast shows a start near the bottom of the range (around 9–10 °C or lower, the 10th percentile of 09:00) the extra layer is easier to justify; if it shows above 22–24 °C in the afternoon (the 90th percentile of 15:00) the organiser’s guidance on pace and fluids matters more. If rain is forecast, a waterproof is already in the kit.

For the real forecast the organiser points to the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (hnms.gr). On 29 September 2026 there was no forecast for 8 November yet; once one exists it takes precedence over this page. Block start times will be finalised two weeks before the race, so re-check the official page. Do not reuse this page as a forecast: it is a statistical picture.

Related bib2bib articles: the visitor and spectator guide (/en/articles/athens-marathon-travel-spectator-guide), with the whole-month November picture in one paragraph; the course km by km (/en/articles/athens-marathon-course-km-by-km), with the elevation and the Stavros climb; the weekend programme and race times (/en/articles/athens-authentic-marathon-2026-guide); the buses and block start times (/en/articles/athens-marathon-start-buses-block-times); the EXPO and bib pickup (/en/articles/athens-marathon-expo-bib-pickup-faliro); the Marathon vs Half vs Poseidon comparison (/en/articles/athens-marathon-vs-half-vs-poseidon-which-to-run); and, for the history of the route, Spyridon Louis (/en/articles/spyridon-louis-1896-olympic-marathon), Pheidippides (/en/articles/pheidippides-history-vs-legend) and the 2004 Olympic Marathon (/en/articles/athens-2004-olympic-marathon).