Climate and average weather in Sibu

In Sibu, the weather is oppressive, 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 May to late December

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Sibu typically varies from 23°C to 32°C, and is rarely below 22°C or above 34°C. May is the hottest month of the year, while January is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Sibu for warm-weather activities are from early January to late April and early May to late December.

Hottest
May
32°
Coldest
Jan
23°
Wettest
Dec
344 mm
Driest
Jul
174 mm
Rain / yr
2944 mm
304 wet days
Daylight
11.9–12.1 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
0 m
2.3°N
Clearest
Jun
78% cloud

Sibu is town in Malaysia.

Density
24/km²
people per km²
Founded
1862

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

Sibu 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 May to late December.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Sibu stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is May, with an average high of 32°C and low of 24°C; the coolest is January, with an average low of 23°C and high of 30°C.

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

20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan3023
Feb3023
Mar3124
Apr3124
May3224
Jun3124
Jul3124
Aug3124
Sep3124
Oct3124
Nov3124
Dec3023

How hot and cold Sibu 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, Sibu feels like about 40°C (around May 8). Nearly every day a year carries some heat stress, and 62 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)
Jan35302323
Feb35302323
Mar37312424
Apr39312424
May40322424
Jun39312424
Jul38312424
Aug38312424
Sep38312424
Oct37312424
Nov37312424
Dec36302323

Average hourly temperature in Sibu

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 May afternoons, near 32°C, and coldest before dawn in January, near 23°C.

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

Sibu 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° / 23°31227.811.92.8
Feb30° / 23°24123.811.92.9
Mar31° / 24°22726.1122.7
Apr31° / 24°23026.8122.5
May32° / 24°21825.812.12.6
Jun31° / 24°17721.312.13.0
Jul31° / 24°17420.712.13.1
Aug31° / 24°19221.312.13.0
Sep31° / 24°24224.7122.7
Oct31° / 24°28028.111.92.5
Nov31° / 24°30728.711.92.5
Dec30° / 23°3442911.92.6

Chance of rain

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

Sibu gets about 2944 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 5.2 months, from around Sep 23 to Feb 28, peaking in November at about 96% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Aug 3.

December is the wettest month by volume, with 344 mm over about 29 wet days; July is the driest, with 174 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetNov 19 · 96%Aug 3 · 63%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan9028
Feb8424
Mar8526
Apr8927
May8326
Jun7121
Jul6621
Aug6921
Sep8225
Oct9128
Nov9529
Dec9329

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Sibu collects about 2944 mm of rain across 304 wet days — roughly 245 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. December is the wettest month with 344 mm, while July is the driest at just 174 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 33% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec312241227230218177174192242280307344
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan31228
Feb24124
Mar22726
Apr23027
May21826
Jun17721
Jul17421
Aug19221
Sep24225
Oct28028
Nov30729
Dec34429

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Sibu, 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 April 8 and lasts for 5.3 months, ending around September 14. The clearest month is June, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 21% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around September 15 and lasts for 6.7 months, ending around April 7. 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJun 21 · 23%Dec 24 · 1%partly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan298
Feb496
Mar694
Apr1090
May1684
Jun2179
Jul2179
Aug1486
Sep991
Oct496
Nov298
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, Sibu 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)
Jan11.96:466:38
Feb11.96:506:45
Mar12.06:436:42
Apr12.06:316:34
May12.16:266:32
Jun12.16:296:37
Jul12.16:356:42
Aug12.16:356:39
Sep12.06:276:27
Oct11.96:196:16
Nov11.96:216:15
Dec11.96:336:25

Sunny days

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

Sibu 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.

05JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgloomyJul 102 daysJan 10 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan0Gloomy
Feb0Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr0Gloomy
May1Gloomy
Jun2Gloomy
Jul2Gloomy
Aug1Gloomy
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.

Sibu 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
Oppressive (%)Miserable (%)
Jan5446
Feb5743
Mar3862
Apr1090
May496
Jun1684
Jul3268
Aug3664
Sep3070
Oct3466
Nov2872
Dec3862

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

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmFeb 5 · 5 km/hApr 25 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan5calm
Feb5calm
Mar4calm
Apr4calm
May4calm
Jun4calm
Jul5calm
Aug5calm
Sep4calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec5calm

Hazard calendar for Sibu

In seasonPeak

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

Sibu sits in the Pacific typhoon belt; the season peaks July–October.

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

Best time to visit Sibu

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around late December, Sibu 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 Sibu it holds close to 3.1 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
Jan2.8poor
Feb2.9poor
Mar2.7poor
Apr2.5poor
May2.6poor
Jun3.0poor
Jul3.1poor
Aug3.0poor
Sep2.7poor
Oct2.5poor
Nov2.5poor
Dec2.6poor

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 Sibu for hot-weather activities run from late January to late March and again from early May to late September, with a peak score in the first week of August.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 2 · 4.9

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 Sibu, 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.

Sibu 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 May, Sibu sees daytime highs around 32°C and nights near 24°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 26 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Sibu

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 64 km away) is warmest in May at about 30°C and coldest in February near 28°C.

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

26°28°30°32°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan28Tropical
Feb28Warm
Mar29Tropical
Apr30Tropical
May30Tropical
Jun30Tropical
Jul30Tropical
Aug30Tropical
Sep30Tropical
Oct30Tropical
Nov29Tropical
Dec29Tropical

UV index (midday) in Sibu 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 Sibu peaks around March 14 at about 15 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near July 14 at about 11 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 14UV 15Jul 14UV 11
UV index (midday)Level
Jan13Extreme
Feb15Extreme
Mar15Extreme
Apr15Extreme
May14Extreme
Jun12Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug13Extreme
Sep13Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov11Extreme
Dec11Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Sibu

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
Feb8.56.5
Mar8.56.5
Apr8.56.5
May86.5
Jun86
Jul7.55.5
Aug86
Sep86
Oct86.5
Nov7.55.5
Dec86

Air quality in Sibu 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 Sibu is worst in September — around 26 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 2.4× the cleanest month (December, 11 µg/m³).

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

0102030JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateGoodSep 1325 µg/m³Dec 1411 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan12Good
Feb12Moderate
Mar13Moderate
Apr14Moderate
May13Moderate
Jun14Moderate
Jul16Moderate
Aug22Moderate
Sep26Moderate
Oct17Moderate
Nov11Good
Dec11Good
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Sibu 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. Sibu banks about 6,289 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)
Jan514
Feb469
Mar535
Apr528
May552
Jun528
Jul542
Aug542
Sep518
Oct531
Nov510
Dec520

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.

Sibu receives about 4.6 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 3.9 and 5.1 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

0123456JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightAug 65.1 kWhDec 243.9 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.1Bright
Feb4.4Bright
Mar4.8Bright
Apr4.8Bright
May4.8Bright
Jun4.7Bright
Jul4.9Bright
Aug5.0Bright
Sep4.9Bright
Oct4.6Bright
Nov4.2Bright
Dec4.0Moderate

Where is Sibu?

Sibu sits at 2.3°N, 111.8°E, 0 m above sea level, in Malaysia. The nearest listed city is Sibu Jaya, 18 km away.

Topography around Sibu

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Sibu has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 24 m around an average of 8 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 74 m; within 80 km, large variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 793 m.

The land around Sibu is covered by trees (55%) and artificial surfaces (29%) within 3 km, trees (85%) within 16 km, and trees (79%) within 80 km.

3 km
24 m
16 km
74 m
80 km
793 m
treesgrasslandartificial surfaceswatermangroves
Nearby: Sibu Jaya 18 km · Maradong 33 km · Julau 33 km · Sarikei 39 km · Kanowit 43 km · Pakan 49 km · Daro 49 km · Dalat 50 km

Malaysia travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 1
Exercise Normal Precautions
Power plugs
Type C / G / M
230 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 32% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$13,125
2025
Happiness
6.0 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
95%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
0.7
per 100k, 2023
Road deaths
22.5
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Upper middle
World Bank
English
High
EF EPI 581
Religion
Muslim 64%Buddhist 19%Christian 9%Hindu 6%

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 Sibu (2.3°, 111.8167°, elevation 0 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).