The right temperature.
10 to 25°C
Our conservative air temperature range. Sunlit walls can be much hotter, so check the surface and your paint specification.
The outdoor painting forecast
Check the weather.
Before you paint.
The right finish starts with the right day. Seven days of local weather, translated into practical advice for painting outside.
Your outlook for the week
KY15 4BU
Local weather for your next exterior project.
Reading the skies.
Checking rain, temperature, wind and drying conditions for KY15 4BU.
Weather by MET Norway, CC BY 4.0. Summaries and painting guidance by Aethos. Postcode lookup by Postcodes.io. Your postcode is sent for lookup; only approximate coordinates are sent to the weather provider.
Send it to the person doing the job.
Every postcode has its own link and a preview card showing the week. Painters send it to clients to explain a delay. Clients send it to painters to ask about one.
Bookmark your street.
Save the link with your postcode in it. The forecast refreshes every time you open it, so the answer to can I paint today is one tap away for the whole season.
Free for the trade.
No account, no tracking beyond the postcode lookup, no upsell. If you run a paint shop or a decorating business, link to it from your own site. Read how we built it.
The judgement behind the forecast
Good weather. Better preparation.
A planning aid for brush and roller work, not permission to paint. The product data sheet and the condition of your surface always come first.
Dry means more than dry.
Up to 80% humidity
No forecast rain, with air more than 3°C above the dew point. This is a warning signal, not a measurement of surface dryness.
A little less wind.
Up to 12 mph
Stronger wind can carry dust and dry paint too quickly. Gusts and exposed coastal sites need an extra check on the day.
Time to settle.
2 hours + 6 hours
We look for two daylight working hours followed by at least six suitable drying hours. Your coating may need much longer.
Before you open the tin
Check surface moisture, surface temperature, overnight dew, frost, shade, direct sun and exposure. A wall may remain wet after the forecast turns dry. Never coat a damp or unsound substrate.
Our thresholds are Aethos planning assumptions, not universal product limits. They do not assess spray painting, safe access, ladder use, limewash, specialist coatings or full curing. Follow the exact manufacturer instructions and allow the stated rain resistance and recoat times.
The nearest dates use hourly forecasts. Later forecasts often cover six hours at a time and are marked tentative because they cannot give the same detail. Check again nearer the day and immediately before starting.
Read the safety essentialsQuestions painters ask
The weather, explained by someone who has been rained on.
Can I paint outside today?
Enter your UK postcode and the tool gives a plain answer for today, the best day in the next seven, and the hours to paint in. It checks rain, temperature, humidity, wind and how close the air is to the dew point, then looks for two hours of painting followed by six hours suitable for drying.
What is the dew point and why does it matter for painting?
The dew point is the temperature at which moisture in the air condenses onto a surface. If a wall cools to within about three degrees of it, a film of water forms on the paint before it has cured. That is why an evening that looks dry can still ruin a coat. We flag any hour where the air is within 3°C of the dew point.
What temperature is too cold to paint outside in Scotland?
Most water based masonry and trim paints want the air and the surface above 10°C for the whole drying period, including overnight. Some products allow 5°C but that is the exception. Check the data sheet, and remember a north wall in October is colder than the forecast air temperature.
Why does the forecast turn tentative after a few days?
The nearest days use hourly data. Further out the weather model reports six hour blocks, which cannot show whether a shower falls at ten in the morning or four in the afternoon. We mark those days tentative and suggest checking again nearer the time.
Can I share the forecast for my postcode?
Yes. Every postcode has its own link with a preview card showing the week at a glance. Use the share button after checking your postcode, or copy the address bar.
The Aethos Letter
The painting window for the fortnight ahead, in your inbox.
Every second Friday: where the weather is heading for exterior work on the east coast, one colour, one repair tip and one photograph from a live job. Nothing else.
Some things are better talked through.
An exposed wall, an older coating, a finish that keeps failing. We can help.