Climate and average weather in Samarinda

In Samarinda, 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: mid June to mid October

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Samarinda typically varies from 24°C to 32°C, and is rarely below 23°C or above 33°C. September is the hottest month of the year, while July is the coldest.

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

Hottest
Sep
32°
Coldest
Jul
24°
Wettest
Dec
315 mm
Driest
Aug
160 mm
Rain / yr
2961 mm
305 wet days
Daylight
12.0–12.0 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
24 m
0.5°S
Clearest
Aug
73% cloud

Samarinda is city in East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia.

Density
1,105/km²
people per km²
Founded
1668

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

Samarinda 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 June to mid October.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Samarinda stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is September, with an average high of 32°C and low of 24°C; the coolest is July, with an average low of 24°C and high of 31°C.

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

20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan3124
Feb3124
Mar3124
Apr3124
May3124
Jun3124
Jul3124
Aug3124
Sep3224
Oct3224
Nov3124
Dec3124

How hot and cold Samarinda 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, Samarinda feels like about 40°C (around April 23). Nearly every day a year carries some heat stress, and 77 of them tip into dangerous heat (feels-like above 39°C), peaking in April.

20°25°30°35°40°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdangerous heat
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan37312424
Feb38312424
Mar38312424
Apr39312424
May39312424
Jun38312424
Jul37312424
Aug37312424
Sep38322424
Oct39322424
Nov39312424
Dec38312424

Average hourly temperature in Samarinda

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 32°C, and coldest before dawn in July, near 24°C.

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

Samarinda 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
Jan31° / 24°27725.9122.7
Feb31° / 24°23922.7122.8
Mar31° / 24°29926.6122.6
Apr31° / 24°31027.2122.4
May31° / 24°26028.5122.5
Jun31° / 24°22725.9122.7
Jul31° / 24°18623.7123.1
Aug31° / 24°16020.5123.3
Sep32° / 24°17321.3123.0
Oct32° / 24°22625.5122.6
Nov31° / 24°29028.2122.3
Dec31° / 24°31529.1122.4

Chance of rain

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

Samarinda gets about 2961 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 3.0 months, from around Oct 19 to Jan 18, peaking in November at about 96% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Aug 9.

December is the wettest month by volume, with 315 mm over about 29 wet days; August is the driest, with 160 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetNov 30 · 96%Aug 9 · 65%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8426
Feb8123
Mar8627
Apr9127
May9229
Jun8626
Jul7624
Aug6721
Sep7121
Oct8226
Nov9428
Dec9329

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Samarinda collects about 2961 mm of rain across 305 wet days — roughly 247 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. December is the wettest month with 315 mm, while August is the driest at just 160 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 31% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec277239299310260227186160173226290315
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan27726
Feb23923
Mar29927
Apr31027
May26029
Jun22726
Jul18624
Aug16021
Sep17321
Oct22626
Nov29028
Dec31529

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

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

The clearer part of the year begins around May 11 and lasts for 5.1 months, ending around October 12. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 29% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around October 13 and lasts for 6.9 months, ending around May 10. The cloudiest month is December, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 98% 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 23 · 30%Dec 19 · 2%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan595
Feb892
Mar1189
Apr1189
May1783
Jun1981
Jul2476
Aug2971
Sep2476
Oct1387
Nov595
Dec298

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, Samarinda 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)
Jan12.06:206:21
Feb12.06:266:26
Mar12.06:216:21
Apr12.06:126:11
May12.06:086:07
Jun12.06:136:11
Jul12.06:186:16
Aug12.06:166:15
Sep12.06:066:06
Oct12.05:565:57
Nov12.05:565:57
Dec12.06:076:08

Sunny days

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

Samarinda gets about 1 sunny days a month gloomy — and it barely shifts through the year, holding between 0 and 3 days every month. Clear skies here are a flat line, not a season.

05JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgloomyAug 163 daysDec 100 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan1Gloomy
Feb1Gloomy
Mar1Gloomy
Apr1Gloomy
May1Gloomy
Jun2Gloomy
Jul2Gloomy
Aug2Gloomy
Sep2Gloomy
Oct1Gloomy
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.

Samarinda 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 (%)
Jan03367
Feb03168
Mar02080
Apr0892
May0298
Jun01486
Jul04456
Aug15743
Sep04555
Oct02377
Nov01189
Dec01585

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 Samarinda is steady company: average speeds sit near 6 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

051015JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmlight breezeAug 6 · 7 km/hApr 24 · 5 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan6calm
Feb6calm
Mar6calm
Apr5calm
May5calm
Jun5calm
Jul7calm
Aug7calm
Sep6calm
Oct6calm
Nov5calm
Dec5calm

Best time to visit Samarinda

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around early October, Samarinda 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. In Samarinda it holds close to 3.3 all year, so any month is about as good as another for general outdoor tourist activities.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDectravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitation

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
Feb2.8poor
Mar2.6poor
Apr2.4poor
May2.5poor
Jun2.8poor
Jul3.1poor
Aug3.2poor
Sep3.0poor
Oct2.6poor
Nov2.3poor
Dec2.4poor

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 Samarinda for hot-weather activities run from mid January to mid March and again from mid June to late October, with a peak score in the second week of August.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 10 · 5.0

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 Samarinda, 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.

Samarinda packs about the same all year — highs hold near 32°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, Samarinda sees daytime highs around 32°C and nights near 24°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 21 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Samarinda

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 50 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°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan29Tropical
Feb29Tropical
Mar29Tropical
Apr29Tropical
May30Tropical
Jun29Tropical
Jul29Tropical
Aug29Tropical
Sep29Tropical
Oct29Tropical
Nov29Tropical
Dec29Tropical

UV index (midday) in Samarinda 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 Samarinda peaks around March 12 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near July 10 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 12UV 15Jul 10UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan14Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar16Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun11Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug12Extreme
Sep13Extreme
Oct13Extreme
Nov13Extreme
Dec12Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Samarinda

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 March 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
Mar8.56.5
Apr86.5
May86
Jun7.55.5
Jul7.55.5
Aug86
Sep86
Oct86
Nov86
Dec7.56

Air quality in Samarinda 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 Samarinda is worst in October — around 28 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 2.1× the cleanest month (March, 14 µg/m³).

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

0102030JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateOct 1427 µg/m³Mar 1314 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan14Moderate
Feb14Moderate
Mar14Moderate
Apr15Moderate
May14Moderate
Jun15Moderate
Jul15Moderate
Aug16Moderate
Sep23Moderate
Oct28Moderate
Nov17Moderate
Dec15Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Samarinda 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. Samarinda banks about 6,393 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)
Jan536
Feb489
Mar545
Apr532
May551
Jun522
Jul533
Aug540
Sep529
Oct549
Nov528
Dec540

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.

Samarinda receives about 5.0 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.6 and 5.6 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseSep 215.6 kWhDec 244.6 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.8Bright
Feb5.2Bright
Mar5.2Bright
Apr5.0Bright
May4.8Bright
Jun4.6Bright
Jul4.8Bright
Aug5.3Bright
Sep5.6Bright
Oct5.3Bright
Nov4.8Bright
Dec4.6Bright

Where is Samarinda?

Samarinda sits at 0.5°S, 117.1°E, 24 m above sea level, in Indonesia. The nearest listed city is Loa Janan, 12 km away.

AmuntaiBarabaiPalu

Topography around Samarinda

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Samarinda has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 118 m around an average of 14 m above sea level; within 16 km, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 261 m; within 80 km, large variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 686 m.

The land around Samarinda is covered by artificial surfaces (62%) and trees (23%) within 3 km, trees (63%) within 16 km, and trees (57%) and water (31%) within 80 km.

3 km
118 m
16 km
261 m
80 km
686 m
treesgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrainwaterwetlandmangroves
Nearby: Loa Janan 12 km · Bontang 79 km · Balikpapan 93 km · Muara Teweh 255 km · Tanjung 269 km · Amuntai 300 km · Barabai 304 km · Palu 307 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 Samarinda (-0.4917°, 117.1458°, elevation 24 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).