Climate and average weather in Palembang

In Palembang, the weather is muggy, hot, wet, and mostly cloudy and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near hot levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around December.

Best: early June to late September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Palembang typically varies from 24°C to 33°C, and is rarely below 22°C or above 35°C. September is the hottest month of the year, while January is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best time of year to visit Palembang for warm-weather activities is from early June to late September.

Hottest
Sep
33°
Coldest
Jan
24°
Wettest
Dec
300 mm
Driest
Aug
76 mm
Rain / yr
2393 mm
274 wet days
Daylight
11.8–12.2 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
5 m
2.9°S
Clearest
Aug
69% cloud

Palembang is city in South Sumatra Province, Indonesia.

Founded
~683 CE

Air quality: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Density & description: Wikidata (CC0), GeoNames.

Palembang weather by month, at a glance

The whole year in one picture — sky, rain, humidity, temperature and travel score. Click any band to jump to its full chart.

Each stripe is one measure across the whole year, stacked so a single day reads top to bottom. The sky band runs overcast grey on top down to clear blue at the base — more blue means sunnier — followed by the rainfall curve, the humidity band, a temperature strip that tints each stretch of the year by how warm its average high is, and the travel-score line at the foot. Scan straight down any date to read that day across every measure at once; the score climbs highest around early June to late September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

Daily average highs and lows in Palembang, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

Temperatures in Palembang stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is September, with an average high of 33°C and low of 24°C; the coolest is January, with an average low of 24°C and high of 30°C.

Days typically run about 7°C warmer than nights year-round.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan3024
Feb3124
Mar3124
Apr3124
May3224
Jun3124
Jul3124
Aug3224
Sep3324
Oct3324
Nov3124
Dec3124

How hot and cold Palembang really feels

Feels-like highFeels-like lowactual air temp

The felt-temperature range through the year — heat index on the day's high (summer humidity), wind chill on the night's low (winter wind). The dashed lines are the plain thermometer; the gap is how much hotter or colder it really feels.

On the hottest afternoons, once humidity is folded in, Palembang feels like about 40°C (around May 9). Nearly every day a year carries some heat stress, and 65 of them tip into dangerous heat (feels-like above 39°C), peaking in May.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdangerous heat
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan35302424
Feb36312424
Mar38312424
Apr39312424
May40322424
Jun38312424
Jul36312424
Aug37322424
Sep37332424
Oct38332424
Nov38312424
Dec37312424

Average hourly temperature in Palembang

A compact picture of the whole year, hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled average temperature. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

Read left to right for the day of the year and top to bottom for the hour of the day; the color is the modeled temperature, cool blues through to hot reds on the same scale as the other charts. A vertical slice is a single day's swing — coolest just before dawn, warmest in the mid-afternoon — while a horizontal slice follows one hour across the seasons. The darker overlay marks night and the lighter one the twilight around sunrise and sunset. Colors run warmest on September afternoons, near 33°C, and coldest before dawn in January, near 24°C.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM

Palembang weather by month

Every month at a glance. Click a month for its detailed page.

MonthHigh / Low (°C)Rainfall (mm)Wet daysDaylight (hours)Travel score
Jan30° / 24°24728.112.12.7
Feb31° / 24°2402512.12.6
Mar31° / 24°29929.3122.4
Apr31° / 24°27328.511.92.3
May32° / 24°18325.111.92.7
Jun31° / 24°11919.411.83.3
Jul31° / 24°11217.311.83.6
Aug32° / 24°7613.911.93.5
Sep33° / 24°8412.5123.2
Oct33° / 24°17319.312.12.8
Nov31° / 24°28726.912.12.4
Dec31° / 24°30029.112.22.5

Chance of rain

How likely it is to rain on a typical day, and how that shifts across the wetter and drier seasons.

Palembang gets about 2393 mm of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is very wet, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 6.9 months, from around Oct 31 to May 28, peaking in April at about 97% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Sep 14.

December is the wettest month by volume, with 300 mm over about 29 wet days; August is the driest, with 76 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetApr 3 · 97%Sep 14 · 41%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan9128
Feb8925
Mar9429
Apr9529
May8125
Jun6519
Jul5517
Aug4514
Sep4313
Oct6219
Nov8927
Dec9429

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Palembang collects about 2393 mm of rain across 274 wet days — roughly 199 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. December is the wettest month with 300 mm, while August is the driest at just 76 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 37% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2472402992731831191127684173287300
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan24728
Feb24025
Mar29929
Apr27329
May18325
Jun11919
Jul11217
Aug7614
Sep8413
Oct17319
Nov28727
Dec30029

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

How often the daytime sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast.

In Palembang, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around May 10 and lasts for 5.3 months, ending around October 17. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 35% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around October 18 and lasts for 6.7 months, ending around May 9. The cloudiest month is December, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 99% of the time.

0%100%10%90%20%80%30%70%40%60%50%50%60%40%70%30%80%20%90%10%100%0%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAug 6 · 37%Dec 19 · 1%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan397
Feb595
Mar595
Apr793
May2080
Jun3367
Jul3466
Aug3565
Sep2575
Oct1684
Nov595
Dec199

Daylight, sunrise and sunset

DaylightNight

Hours of daylight through the year, with sunrise and sunset times.

The gold band is daylight — sunrise runs along its lower edge, sunset along the upper — so it widens toward summer and pinches toward winter, with night the dark area above and below. Close to the equator, Palembang barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 12 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.16:066:15
Feb12.16:136:18
Mar12.06:106:11
Apr11.96:035:59
May11.96:015:53
Jun11.86:065:56
Jul11.86:116:02
Aug11.96:086:02
Sep12.05:565:55
Oct12.15:445:48
Nov12.15:425:50
Dec12.25:526:02

Sunny days

How many genuinely sunny days each month brings — days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — banded into plain-language zones.

Palembang averages about 2 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 0 and 5 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 5.2 months, from around May 9 to Oct 13. The sunniest month is June, with roughly 4 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is January, down near 0 sunny days — about 100% fewer than the June peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedJun 265 daysJan 10 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb0Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr0Gloomy
May3Gloomy
Jun4Gloomy
Jul5Gloomy
Aug5Gloomy
Sep3Gloomy
Oct2Gloomy
Nov0Gloomy
Dec0Gloomy

Humidity comfort

DryComfortableHumidMuggyOppressiveMiserable

Share of days at each humidity comfort level, based on the dew point — the measure that tracks how muggy it actually feels.

Humidity comfort is graded by the dew point — the temperature at which the air would be fully saturated — because it tracks how muggy it actually feels far better than relative humidity does. A low dew point feels dry and crisp; a high one feels sticky and oppressive no matter the reading on a humidity gauge.

Palembang is humid all year round — on a typical day the air feels at least humid, and there is no real dry season to wait for.

The stickiest month is January, when it feels muggy, oppressive or miserable about 100% of the time. Even in January, the mildest month, the air is dry or comfortable only 0% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecmiserableoppressivemuggy
Muggy (%)Oppressive (%)Miserable (%)
Jan05644
Feb05050
Mar02179
Apr0496
May0793
Jun03367
Jul26632
Aug97517
Sep186418
Oct154638
Nov23069
Dec03466

Wind

Average wind speed through the year, banded into plain-language speed zones so a number reads as 'breezy' or 'calm' without knowing the scale.

This is the average sustained wind speed at the standard 10 metres above open ground — the steady flow a weather station reports, not the sharper gusts that come and go, which can run half again as fast. It's the number that says whether a place is generally breezy or calm.

Across the year, average wind speed in Palembang is typically calm, near 6 km/h, and varies little with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 3.8 months, from around Jun 16 to Oct 10. The windiest month is August, averaging about 7 km/h (calm).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Mar 2 to Jun 15, with April the calmest month at about 4 km/h.

051015JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmerwindiercalmercalmlight breezeAug 15 · 8 km/hApr 9 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan7calm
Feb7calm
Mar5calm
Apr4calm
May5calm
Jun6calm
Jul7calm
Aug7calm
Sep7calm
Oct6calm
Nov5calm
Dec6calm

Best time to visit Palembang

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

To characterize how pleasant the weather is in Palembang throughout the year, we compute two travel scores — one for general sightseeing, one for beach and pool weather.

Around late September, Palembang is still near the tail of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds already thinning.

Inferred from the travel-score curve; month-by-month visitor numbers are a planned addition.

The travel score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 18°C and 28°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Palembang for general outdoor tourist activities is from early June to early October, with a peak score in the last week of July.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJul 31 · 3.7

The travel score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

Travel score (0–10)Rating
Jan2.7poor
Feb2.6poor
Mar2.4poor
Apr2.3poor
May2.7poor
Jun3.2poor
Jul3.6fair
Aug3.5fair
Sep3.2poor
Oct2.8poor
Nov2.4poor
Dec2.5poor

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Palembang for hot-weather activities is from early June to mid October, with a peak score in the first week of August.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 3 · 5.9

The beach/pool score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

What to pack for Palembang, by month

EssentialRecommendedOptional

Month by month, what's worth putting in the bag — from the temperature range, rain chance, sun and wind. Tap a month for a quick packing note.

Palembang packs about the same all year — highs hold near 33°C. Across the year the things worth having are light clothes, rain gear and sun protection.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In September, Palembang sees daytime highs around 33°C and nights near 24°C. Pack light clothes. Worth having: rain gear and sun protection. About 13 days see rain.

UV index (midday) in Palembang by month

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Clear-sky midday UV index through the year, shaded by the WHO exposure levels — how much sun protection each month calls for.

Under clear skies, the midday UV index in Palembang peaks around February 21 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near July 11 at about 10 (very high).

The index reaches 3 or more — the level where the WHO recommends sun protection — every month of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeVery highExtremeFeb 21UV 15Jul 11UV 10
UV index (midday)Level
Jan13Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr13Extreme
May11Extreme
Jun10Very high
Jul10Very high
Aug11Extreme
Sep12Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov10Very high
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Palembang

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Modeled clear-sky UV for every hour of every day — when in the day sun protection actually matters.

The whole year hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled clear-sky UV index — the midday peak scaled down as the sun sits lower in the sky. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

UV falls off far faster than brightness as the sun drops, so even in February the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 8.5 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 6.5 hours reach 6 or more. Mornings and late afternoons stay comparatively gentle year round.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM
UV ≥ 3 (h/day)UV ≥ 6 (h/day)
Jan86
Feb8.56.5
Mar86.5
Apr86.5
May7.55.5
Jun7.55
Jul75
Aug7.55.5
Sep86
Oct86
Nov7.55.5
Dec85.5

Air quality in Palembang by month

GoodModeratePoorUnhealthyVery unhealthy

Average fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) through the year — so you can see which months the air is worst, not just the yearly average.

Air quality in Palembang is worst in October — around 189 µg/m³ PM2.5 (very unhealthy), about 7.3× the cleanest month (February, 26 µg/m³).

Modeled monthly averages (CAMS reanalysis, 2015–2024).

0306090120150180210JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateModeratePoorUnhealthyVery unhealthyUnhealthyOct 15181 µg/m³Feb 926 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan27Moderate
Feb26Moderate
Mar33Moderate
Apr36Poor
May34Moderate
Jun32Moderate
Jul33Moderate
Aug51Poor
Sep138Unhealthy
Oct189Very unhealthy
Nov103Unhealthy
Dec30Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Palembang is frost-free year round — even the coldest nights rarely reach freezing, so there is no start or end to the growing season.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecfrost-free year round
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan1000
Feb1000
Mar1000
Apr1000
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct1000
Nov1000
Dec1000

Growing degree days

Degree days (base 10°C)Frost-free shaded

Growing degree days tally heat above 10°C: each day adds however many degrees its average temperature runs over that threshold, and cold days add nothing. Palembang banks about 6,435 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around October.

02,0004,0006,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan527
Feb481
Mar542
Apr533
May557
Jun530
Jul539
Aug551
Sep545
Oct565
Nov531
Dec533

Solar energy

Average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground, banded into brightness zones so the number means something at a glance.

Solar energy is how much sunlight actually reaches the ground each day, measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre (kWh/m²) — the combined effect of how long the sun is up, how high it climbs, and how much cloud gets in the way. It's the raw fuel a solar panel has to work with: for scale, 1 kWh/m² a day is dim and wintry, while 7+ is desert-bright.

Palembang receives about 4.8 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.2 and 5.5 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseSep 205.5 kWhDec 164.2 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.4Bright
Feb4.7Bright
Mar4.7Bright
Apr4.7Bright
May4.6Bright
Jun4.5Bright
Jul4.7Bright
Aug5.2Bright
Sep5.5Bright
Oct5.3Bright
Nov4.6Bright
Dec4.2Bright

Where is Palembang?

Palembang sits at 2.9°S, 104.7°E, 5 m above sea level, in Indonesia. The nearest listed city is Indralaya, 38 km away.

Topography around Palembang

How much the land rises and falls, and what covers it, within 3, 16 and 80 km of Palembang.

Within 3 km, the terrain around Palembang has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 25 m around an average of 8 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 58 m; within 80 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 80 m.

The land around Palembang is covered by artificial surfaces (57%) and trees (29%) within 3 km, trees (51%) and artificial surfaces (21%) within 16 km, and trees (65%) within 80 km.

3 km
25 m
16 km
58 m
80 km
80 m
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswaterwetlandmangroves
Nearby: Indralaya 38 km · Prabumulih 81 km · Muntok 105 km · Baturaja 149 km · Tanjungagung 154 km · Lahat 165 km · Pangkalpinang 175 km · Jambi City 193 km

Indonesia travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 2
Exercise Increased Caution
Power plugs
Type C / F
230 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 29% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$5,060
2025
Happiness
5.6 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
30%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
0.3
per 100k, 2022
Road deaths
11.3
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Upper middle
World Bank
English
Low
EF EPI 471
Religion
Muslim 87%Protestant 8%Roman Catholic 3%Hindu 2%

Sources: World Bank, US State Department, World Happiness Report, WHO/UNICEF, EF EPI, CIA World Factbook.

Data sources

Temperature, precipitation, cloud, humidity, wind and solar figures are a 1991–2020 climatology for Palembang (-2.9167°, 104.7458°, elevation 5 m), computed from hourly ERA5 reanalysis — contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Sun figures are astronomical calculations, not observations. City data © GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Map outlines from Natural Earth (public domain); interactive map © Google. UV index is derived from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) clear-sky UV data — contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information. Monthly air-quality (PM2.5) seasonality is from the CAMS EAC4 reanalysis (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service), scaled to the WHO annual mean where available. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).