Climate and average weather in Tarutung

In Tarutung, the weather is humid, warm, wet, and mostly cloudy and remarkably steady, with daytime highs holding near warm levels all year. The wettest stretch peaks around November.

Best: mid May to late September

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Tarutung typically varies from 17°C to 27°C, and is rarely below 16°C or above 29°C. March is the hottest month of the year, while November is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Tarutung for warm-weather activities are from late January to late February and mid May to late September.

Hottest
Mar
27°
Coldest
Nov
18°
Wettest
Nov
400 mm
Driest
Jun
142 mm
Rain / yr
3218 mm
292 wet days
Daylight
11.9–12.1 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
948 m
2.0°N
Clearest
Jun
82% cloud

Tarutung is capital of North Tapanuli Regency in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia.

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

Tarutung 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 late September.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Tarutung stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is March, with an average high of 27°C and low of 18°C; the coolest is November, with an average low of 18°C and high of 26°C.

Days typically run about 9°C warmer than nights year-round.

15°20°25°30°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan2618
Feb2718
Mar2718
Apr2718
May2718
Jun2717
Jul2617
Aug2617
Sep2617
Oct2617
Nov2618
Dec2618

Average hourly temperature in Tarutung

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 March afternoons, near 27°C, and coldest before dawn in November, near 18°C.

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

Tarutung 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
Jan26° / 18°26124.811.94.1
Feb27° / 18°23521.711.94.2
Mar27° / 18°26626.2123.9
Apr27° / 18°32527.4123.6
May27° / 18°21823.412.14.2
Jun27° / 17°14218.112.14.9
Jul26° / 17°16719.612.14.9
Aug26° / 17°2412312.14.4
Sep26° / 17°25624.4124.1
Oct26° / 17°36126.7123.9
Nov26° / 18°40028.511.93.5
Dec26° / 18°3452811.93.7

Chance of rain

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

Tarutung gets about 3218 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 5.0 months, from around Aug 24 to Jan 21, peaking in November at about 96% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jun 18.

November is the wettest month by volume, with 400 mm over about 29 wet days; June is the driest, with 142 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetNov 18 · 96%Jun 18 · 58%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8125
Feb7822
Mar8526
Apr9127
May7523
Jun6118
Jul6320
Aug7423
Sep8124
Oct8627
Nov9429
Dec9028

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Tarutung collects about 3218 mm of rain across 292 wet days — roughly 268 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. November is the wettest month with 400 mm, while June is the driest at just 142 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 34% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec261235266325218142167241256361400345
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan26125
Feb23522
Mar26626
Apr32527
May21823
Jun14218
Jul16720
Aug24123
Sep25624
Oct36127
Nov40029
Dec34528

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Tarutung, 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 8 and lasts for 3.2 months, ending around August 11. The clearest month is June, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 15% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around August 12 and lasts for 4.8 months, ending around January 4. The cloudiest month is November, 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJun 20 · 17%Nov 11 · 1%partly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan793
Feb1090
Mar892
Apr496
May991
Jun1585
Jul1288
Aug694
Sep397
Oct298
Nov199
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, Tarutung barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 06 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan11.96:376:30
Feb11.96:416:37
Mar12.06:346:33
Apr12.06:236:26
May12.16:186:23
Jun12.16:216:28
Jul12.16:276:33
Aug12.16:266:30
Sep12.06:186:19
Oct12.06:116:08
Nov11.96:126:07
Dec11.96:246:17

Sunny days

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

Tarutung gets about 1 sunny days a month gloomy — and it barely shifts through the year, holding between 0 and 2 days every month. Clear skies here are a flat line, not a season.

05JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgloomyJun 212 daysSep 260 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb1Gloomy
Mar1Gloomy
Apr0Gloomy
May1Gloomy
Jun2Gloomy
Jul1Gloomy
Aug0Gloomy
Sep0Gloomy
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.

Tarutung 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 March, when it feels muggy, oppressive or miserable about 78% of the time. Even in July, the mildest month, the air is dry or comfortable only 1% of the time.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecmuggyhumid
Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan13564
Feb13662
Mar02278
Apr01090
May01585
Jun13663
Jul15148
Aug04455
Sep04060
Oct03169
Nov01783
Dec02377

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 Tarutung is steady company: average speeds sit near 4 km/hcalm — in every month of the year, with no meaningful windy or calm season.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmJul 28 · 5 km/hApr 14 · 3 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan4calm
Feb4calm
Mar4calm
Apr4calm
May4calm
Jun4calm
Jul5calm
Aug4calm
Sep4calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec4calm

Hazard calendar for Tarutung

In seasonPeak

When the seasonal hazards worth planning around — the rainy season, tropical-cyclone risk and dust haze — are active through the year.

Tarutung sits in the North Indian Ocean cyclone zone; the season peaks May and October–November.

Cyclone
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec

Best time to visit Tarutung

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around mid September, Tarutung 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 times of year to visit Tarutung for general outdoor tourist activities run from late January to late February and again from mid May to mid September, with a peak score in the last week of June.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJun 22 · 5.1

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
Jan4.1fair
Feb4.2fair
Mar3.9fair
Apr3.6fair
May4.2fair
Jun4.9fair
Jul4.9fair
Aug4.4fair
Sep4.1fair
Oct3.9fair
Nov3.5fair
Dec3.7fair

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 Tarutung for hot-weather activities run from late January to mid March and again from early May to mid August, with a peak score in the third week of June.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationJun 19 · 5.1

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 Tarutung, 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.

Tarutung packs about the same all year — highs hold near 27°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 March, Tarutung sees daytime highs around 27°C and nights near 18°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 26 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Tarutung

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 41 km away) is warmest in March at about 30°C and coldest in November 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
Feb30Tropical
Mar30Tropical
Apr30Tropical
May30Tropical
Jun30Tropical
Jul30Tropical
Aug30Tropical
Sep30Tropical
Oct29Tropical
Nov29Tropical
Dec29Tropical

UV index (midday) in Tarutung 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 Tarutung peaks around February 21 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 18 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeFeb 21UV 15Jun 18UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan12Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar14Extreme
Apr13Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun11Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug11Extreme
Sep14Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov12Extreme
Dec12Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Tarutung

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 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
Feb86.5
Mar86.5
Apr86
May86
Jun7.55.5
Jul86
Aug85.5
Sep86.5
Oct86.5
Nov7.56
Dec86

Air quality in Tarutung 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 Tarutung is worst in October — around 23 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), and holds fairly steady the rest of the year.

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

0102030JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateOct 1123 µg/m³Dec 1015 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan17Moderate
Feb20Moderate
Mar22Moderate
Apr19Moderate
May18Moderate
Jun18Moderate
Jul19Moderate
Aug18Moderate
Sep22Moderate
Oct23Moderate
Nov15Moderate
Dec15Moderate
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Tarutung 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. Tarutung banks about 4,346 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around May.

01,0002,0003,0004,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan371
Feb342
Mar383
Apr374
May387
Jun363
Jul357
Aug355
Sep346
Oct357
Nov347
Dec364

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.

Tarutung receives about 4.7 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 3.9 and 5.2 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

0123456JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightMar 55.2 kWhNov 163.9 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.7Bright
Feb5.1Bright
Mar5.1Bright
Apr4.8Bright
May4.9Bright
Jun5.0Bright
Jul5.0Bright
Aug4.8Bright
Sep4.9Bright
Oct4.4Bright
Nov3.9Moderate
Dec4.0Bright

Where is Tarutung?

Tarutung sits at 2.0°N, 99.0°E, 948 m above sea level, in Indonesia. The nearest listed city is Sibolga, 37 km away.

Topography around Tarutung

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Tarutung has significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 493 m around an average of 1,012 m above sea level; within 16 km, very significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 1,310 m; within 80 km, very significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 2,257 m.

The land around Tarutung is covered by trees (52%) and cropland (30%) within 3 km, trees (78%) within 16 km, and trees (73%) within 80 km.

3 km
493 m
16 km
1,310 m
80 km
2,257 m
treesgrasslandcroplandartificial surfaceswater
Nearby: Sibolga 37 km · Barus 63 km · Pangururan 72 km · Padangsidempuan 78 km · Bandar 87 km · Rantauprapat 97 km · Pematangsiantar 106 km · Paropo 107 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 Tarutung (2.0147°, 98.9655°, elevation 948 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. Tropical-cyclone seasons are the published climatological basin seasons (NOAA National Hurricane Center / regional warning centres). 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).