Climate and average weather in Pontianak

In Pontianak, 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 November.

Best: mid May to early October

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Pontianak typically varies from 24°C to 31°C, and is rarely below 23°C or above 32°C. August is the hottest month of the year, while December is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Pontianak for warm-weather activities are from early January to late March and mid May to early October.

Hottest
Aug
31°
Coldest
Dec
24°
Wettest
Nov
386 mm
Driest
Aug
142 mm
Rain / yr
2819 mm
280 wet days
Daylight
12.0–12.0 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
2 m
0.0°S
Clearest
Jun
71% cloud

Pontianak is city in West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia.

Density
6,364/km²
people per km²
Founded
1771

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

Pontianak 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 mid May to early October.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Pontianak stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is August, with an average high of 31°C and low of 25°C; the coolest is December, with an average low of 24°C and high of 29°C.

Days typically run about 5°C warmer than nights year-round.

20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan2924
Feb2924
Mar3025
Apr3025
May3025
Jun3025
Jul3025
Aug3125
Sep3025
Oct3024
Nov2924
Dec2924

How hot and cold Pontianak 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, Pontianak feels like about 38°C (around May 16). Nearly every day a year carries some heat stress, peaking in May.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdangerous heat
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan33292424
Feb34292424
Mar35302425
Apr37302525
May38302525
Jun37302525
Jul36302525
Aug36312525
Sep36302425
Oct35302424
Nov34292424
Dec34292424

Average hourly temperature in Pontianak

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 August afternoons, near 31°C, and coldest before dawn in December, near 24°C.

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

Pontianak 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
Jan29° / 24°25724.8123.4
Feb29° / 24°17119.6123.6
Mar30° / 25°19923.1123.3
Apr30° / 25°25627.4122.8
May30° / 25°22524.9123.1
Jun30° / 25°17019.8123.6
Jul30° / 25°14917.9123.9
Aug31° / 25°14217.1123.8
Sep30° / 25°19120.7123.4
Oct30° / 24°30927.6123.0
Nov29° / 24°38629122.8
Dec29° / 24°36428.2123.0

Chance of rain

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

Pontianak gets about 2819 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 3.7 months, from around Sep 30 to Jan 21, peaking in November at about 98% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Aug 3.

November is the wettest month by volume, with 386 mm over about 29 wet days; August is the driest, with 142 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetNov 18 · 98%Aug 3 · 49%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8025
Feb6920
Mar7523
Apr9027
May8025
Jun6620
Jul5718
Aug5717
Sep6921
Oct8828
Nov9729
Dec9128

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Pontianak collects about 2819 mm of rain across 280 wet days — roughly 235 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. November is the wettest month with 386 mm, while August is the driest at just 142 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 38% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec257171199256225170149142191309386364
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan25725
Feb17120
Mar19923
Apr25627
May22525
Jun17020
Jul14918
Aug14217
Sep19121
Oct30928
Nov38629
Dec36428

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Pontianak, 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 1 and lasts for 4.4 months, ending around September 12. The clearest month is June, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 30% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 13 and lasts for 7.6 months, ending around April 30. The cloudiest month is November, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 97% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJun 22 · 35%Nov 25 · 1%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan595
Feb892
Mar1189
Apr1189
May2179
Jun3070
Jul3070
Aug2476
Sep1387
Oct694
Nov397
Dec397

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, Pontianak barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 hours of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.05:525:52
Feb12.05:575:57
Mar12.05:525:52
Apr12.05:435:43
May12.05:395:39
Jun12.05:435:43
Jul12.05:485:48
Aug12.05:475:47
Sep12.05:375:37
Oct12.05:285:28
Nov12.05:285:28
Dec12.05:395:39

Sunny days

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

Pontianak averages about 1 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 4.1 months, from around May 3 to Sep 3. The sunniest month is June, with roughly 4 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is November, down near 0 sunny days — about 97% fewer than the June peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedJun 205 daysNov 200 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb1Gloomy
Mar1Gloomy
Apr1Gloomy
May2Gloomy
Jun4Gloomy
Jul4Gloomy
Aug2Gloomy
Sep1Gloomy
Oct0Gloomy
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.

Pontianak 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecmiserableoppressive
Muggy (%)Oppressive (%)Miserable (%)
Jan06436
Feb06436
Mar04159
Apr01090
May0694
Jun02277
Jul15445
Aug16238
Sep05545
Oct04258
Nov03664
Dec04852

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.

Wind in Pontianak is steady company: average speeds sit near 7 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

051015JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmlight breezeJan 31 · 8 km/hApr 23 · 5 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan8calm
Feb8calm
Mar6calm
Apr5calm
May6calm
Jun6calm
Jul8calm
Aug8calm
Sep7calm
Oct6calm
Nov6calm
Dec8calm

Best time to visit Pontianak

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around late May, Pontianak is still near the start of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds not yet at full swing.

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 times of year to visit Pontianak for general outdoor tourist activities run from early January to late March and again from late May to late September, with a peak score in the first week of August.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 2 · 4.0

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
Jan3.4poor
Feb3.6fair
Mar3.3poor
Apr2.8poor
May3.1poor
Jun3.6fair
Jul3.8fair
Aug3.7fair
Sep3.4poor
Oct3.0poor
Nov2.8poor
Dec3.1poor

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 24°C and 34°C. Based on this score, the best times of year to visit Pontianak for hot-weather activities run from late January to mid March and again from early June to late September, with a peak score in the first week of August.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 3 · 5.7

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 Pontianak, 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.

Pontianak packs about the same all year — highs hold near 31°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 August, Pontianak sees daytime highs around 31°C and nights near 25°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 17 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Pontianak

Average ocean temperature at the nearest coast, month by month, banded into swim-comfort zones — the other half of the beach question.

The sea at the nearest coast (about 25 km away) is warmest in May at about 30°C and coldest in February near 29°C.

The water stays above 20°C all year — warm enough for a swim any month.

28°30°32°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan29Tropical
Feb29Tropical
Mar29Tropical
Apr30Tropical
May30Tropical
Jun30Tropical
Jul30Tropical
Aug29Tropical
Sep29Tropical
Oct30Tropical
Nov30Tropical
Dec29Tropical

UV index (midday) in Pontianak 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 Pontianak peaks around February 18 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near July 13 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeFeb 18UV 15Jul 13UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan14Extreme
Feb16Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May13Extreme
Jun11Extreme
Jul10Extreme
Aug13Extreme
Sep13Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov11Extreme
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Pontianak

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)
Jan86.5
Feb8.56.5
Mar86.5
Apr86.5
May86
Jun7.55.5
Jul7.55.5
Aug86
Sep86
Oct86
Nov85.5
Dec7.55.5

Air quality in Pontianak 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 Pontianak is worst in September — around 72 µg/m³ PM2.5 (unhealthy), about 5.0× the cleanest month (December, 14 µg/m³).

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

020406080JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateUnhealthyModerateSep 1369 µg/m³Dec 2114 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan15Moderate
Feb20Moderate
Mar22Moderate
Apr19Moderate
May17Moderate
Jun16Moderate
Jul26Moderate
Aug54Poor
Sep72Unhealthy
Oct30Moderate
Nov16Moderate
Dec14Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Pontianak 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. Pontianak banks about 6,253 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around May.

02,0004,0006,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan515
Feb471
Mar531
Apr520
May546
Jun526
Jul540
Aug544
Sep521
Oct526
Nov499
Dec514

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.

Pontianak receives about 4.9 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.1 and 5.4 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

0123456JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightAug 85.4 kWhNov 294.1 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.7Bright
Feb5.1Bright
Mar5.2Bright
Apr5.0Bright
May4.9Bright
Jun4.9Bright
Jul5.1Bright
Aug5.4Bright
Sep5.2Bright
Oct4.8Bright
Nov4.2Bright
Dec4.2Bright

Where is Pontianak?

Pontianak sits at 0.0°S, 109.3°E, 2 m above sea level, in Indonesia. The nearest listed city is Sungai Raya, 94 km away.

Topography around Pontianak

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Pontianak has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 17 m around an average of 5 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 27 m; within 80 km, large variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 827 m.

The land around Pontianak is covered by artificial surfaces (78%) within 3 km, trees (59%) and grassland (25%) within 16 km, and trees (59%) and water (31%) within 80 km.

3 km
17 m
16 km
27 m
80 km
827 m
treesgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswatermangroves
Nearby: Sungai Raya 94 km · Bengkayang 97 km · Singkawang 111 km · Pemangkat 139 km · Kota Sambas 155 km · Tebedu 165 km · Bau 185 km · Serian 192 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 Pontianak (-0.0319°, 109.325°, elevation 2 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. Sea temperatures are the NOAA OISST v2.1 1991–2020 monthly climatology (public domain), sampled at the nearest ocean point. 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).