Climate and average weather in Daru

In Daru, 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 April.

Best: early June to late November

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Daru typically varies from 24°C to 29°C, and is rarely below 24°C or above 31°C. January is the hottest month of the year, while August is the coldest.

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

Hottest
Jan
29°
Coldest
Aug
24°
Wettest
Apr
311 mm
Driest
Sep
72 mm
Rain / yr
2179 mm
266 wet days
Daylight
11.5–12.5 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
11 m
9.1°S
Clearest
Oct
66% cloud

Daru is capital city of Western Province, Papua New Guinea.

Density
1,601/km²
people per km²
Founded
1884

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

Daru 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 November.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Daru stay fairly even through the year, without a distinct hot or cool season. The warmest month is January, with an average high of 29°C and low of 26°C; the coolest is August, with an average low of 24°C and high of 25°C.

Days typically run about 2°C warmer than nights year-round.

20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°C)Avg low (°C)
Jan2926
Feb2926
Mar2826
Apr2826
May2726
Jun2625
Jul2625
Aug2524
Sep2625
Oct2725
Nov2826
Dec2926

How hot and cold Daru 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, Daru feels like about 35°C (around January 1). About 140 days a year carry some heat stress, peaking in January.

20°25°30°35°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°C)Air high (°C)Feels-like low (°C)Air low (°C)
Jan35292626
Feb34292626
Mar33282626
Apr32282626
May29272626
Jun26262525
Jul26262525
Aug25252424
Sep26262525
Oct28272525
Nov32282626
Dec34292626

Average hourly temperature in Daru

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 January afternoons, near 29°C, and coldest before dawn in August, near 24°C.

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

Daru 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° / 26°25026.912.53.2
Feb29° / 26°24225.412.33.1
Mar28° / 26°28926.712.13.4
Apr28° / 26°31125.711.83.8
May27° / 26°23425.211.64.2
Jun26° / 25°16022.911.54.5
Jul26° / 25°9519.611.55.2
Aug25° / 24°8417.511.75.5
Sep26° / 25°7216.611.95.5
Oct27° / 25°11117.712.25.3
Nov28° / 26°12918.112.44.9
Dec29° / 26°20123.912.53.7

Chance of rain

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

Daru gets about 2179 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 6.6 months, from around Dec 9 to Jun 28, peaking in February at about 91% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Sep 5.

April is the wettest month by volume, with 311 mm over about 26 wet days; September is the driest, with 72 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdriermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetFeb 15 · 91%Sep 5 · 55%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan8727
Feb9025
Mar8627
Apr8526
May8125
Jun7623
Jul6420
Aug5618
Sep5617
Oct5718
Nov6118
Dec7624

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Daru collects about 2179 mm of rain across 266 wet days — roughly 182 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. April is the wettest month with 311 mm, while September is the driest at just 72 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 39% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec250242289311234160958472111129201
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan25027
Feb24225
Mar28927
Apr31126
May23425
Jun16023
Jul9520
Aug8418
Sep7217
Oct11118
Nov12918
Dec20124

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Daru, 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 3 and lasts for 7.3 months, ending around December 9. The clearest month is October, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 39% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around December 10 and lasts for 4.7 months, ending around May 2. The cloudiest month is February, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 91% 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecOct 23 · 40%Mar 6 · 6%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearer
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan1090
Feb991
Mar991
Apr2080
May3268
Jun3565
Jul3466
Aug3763
Sep3664
Oct3961
Nov3367
Dec2377

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. The longest day, around January 1, brings about 12 h 30 min of light; the shortest, around May 23, only 11 h 30 min — a swing of roughly 1 hour.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.56:226:51
Feb12.36:336:51
Mar12.16:356:39
Apr11.86:336:21
May11.66:366:11
Jun11.56:436:12
Jul11.56:476:18
Aug11.76:406:22
Sep11.96:236:20
Oct12.26:066:18
Nov12.46:006:25
Dec12.56:086:39

Sunny days

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

Daru averages about 3 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 0 and 6 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 4.5 months, from around Aug 1 to Dec 14. The sunniest month is October, with roughly 5 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is February, down near 1 sunny days — about 87% fewer than the October peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergloomymixedOct 306 daysFeb 60 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan1Gloomy
Feb1Gloomy
Mar1Gloomy
Apr3Gloomy
May4Gloomy
Jun4Gloomy
Jul3Gloomy
Aug5Gloomy
Sep4Gloomy
Oct5Gloomy
Nov5Gloomy
Dec3Gloomy

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.

Daru 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
Humid (%)Muggy (%)Oppressive (%)Miserable (%)
Jan002971
Feb003466
Mar004753
Apr024454
May065737
Jun0127413
Jul228674
Aug337582
Sep124696
Oct0126820
Nov025544
Dec003070

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 Daru is typically light breeze, near 19 km/h, and varies a lot with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 6.3 months, from around Apr 28 to Nov 4. The windiest month is July, averaging about 27 km/h (breezy).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Nov 5 to Apr 27, with March the calmest month at about 12 km/h.

051015202530JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmerwindiercalmercalmlight breezebreezywindyJul 13 · 27 km/hMar 18 · 12 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan12light breeze
Feb13light breeze
Mar12light breeze
Apr16light breeze
May22breezy
Jun26breezy
Jul27breezy
Aug26breezy
Sep25breezy
Oct22breezy
Nov17light breeze
Dec12light breeze

Hazard calendar for Daru

In seasonPeak

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

Daru sits in the South Indian Ocean cyclone belt; the season peaks January–March.

Daru's rainy season runs December–June, when most of the year's rain falls.

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

Best time to visit Daru

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around late November, Daru 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 Daru for general outdoor tourist activities is from early June to late November, with a peak score in the third week of August.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 19 · 5.6

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
Jan3.2poor
Feb3.0poor
Mar3.4poor
Apr3.8fair
May4.2fair
Jun4.6fair
Jul5.1fair
Aug5.5good
Sep5.5fair
Oct5.3fair
Nov4.9fair
Dec3.8fair

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 Daru for hot-weather activities is from late May to late December, with a peak score in the third week of October.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationOct 19 · 5.5

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 Daru, 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.

Daru packs about the same all year — highs hold near 29°C. Across the year the things worth having are light clothes, rain gear, sun protection and a windbreaker.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In January, Daru sees daytime highs around 29°C and nights near 26°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 27 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Daru

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

The sea offshore is warmest in January at about 29°C and coldest in August near 26°C.

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

24°26°28°30°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan29Tropical
Feb29Tropical
Mar29Tropical
Apr29Tropical
May28Warm
Jun27Warm
Jul26Warm
Aug26Warm
Sep26Warm
Oct27Warm
Nov28Tropical
Dec29Tropical

UV index (midday) in Daru 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 Daru peaks around February 20 at about 16 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 20 at about 9 (very high).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeVery highExtremeFeb 20UV 16Jun 20UV 9
UV index (midday)Level
Jan15Extreme
Feb16Extreme
Mar16Extreme
Apr14Extreme
May11Extreme
Jun9Very high
Jul10Very high
Aug12Extreme
Sep14Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov13Extreme
Dec13Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Daru

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 7 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)
Jan8.56.5
Feb8.57
Mar8.56.5
Apr86.5
May7.55
Jun75
Jul75
Aug86
Sep86.5
Oct86.5
Nov8.56.5
Dec8.56.5
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Daru 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. Daru banks about 5,964 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around January.

02,0004,0006,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°C·days)
Jan541
Feb486
Mar528
Apr503
May506
Jun470
Jul468
Aug462
Sep459
Oct497
Nov506
Dec538

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.

Daru receives about 5.2 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — bright — with a clear seasonal swing between 4.0 and 6.2 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 6.7 months, from around Sep 5 to Mar 28. The brightest month is November, averaging about 6.2 kWh/m² (intense).

The dimmest month is June, down near 4.1 kWh/m² — roughly 33% less than the November peak.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbrighterdimmerbrighterdimmoderatebrightintenseNov 236.2 kWhJun 264.0 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan5.7Bright
Feb5.5Bright
Mar5.2Bright
Apr4.8Bright
May4.4Bright
Jun4.1Bright
Jul4.2Bright
Aug4.7Bright
Sep5.4Bright
Oct6.0Intense
Nov6.2Intense
Dec5.9Bright

Where is Daru?

Daru sits at 9.1°S, 143.2°E, 11 m above sea level, in Papua New Guinea. The nearest listed city is Merauke, 315 km away.

MeraukeMendiMount HagenGorokaBuloloPort MoresbyLaeMadang

Topography around Daru

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Daru has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 24 m around an average of 4 m above sea level; within 16 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 46 m; within 80 km, only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 80 m.

The land around Daru is covered by water (55%) and mangroves (24%) within 3 km, water (60%) and trees (31%) within 16 km, and water (63%) and trees (34%) within 80 km.

3 km
24 m
16 km
46 m
80 km
80 m
treesgrasslandartificial surfaceswaterwetlandmangroves
Nearby: Merauke 315 km · Mendi 330 km · Mount Hagen 375 km · Goroka 410 km · Bulolo 431 km · Port Moresby 435 km · Lae 492 km · Madang 515 km

Papua New Guinea travel facts

Travel advisory
Level 3
Reconsider Travel
Power plugs
Type I
240 V · 50 Hz
Prices
≈ 58% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$3,020
2025
Homicide rate
9.3
per 100k, 2010
Road deaths
12.6
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
Lower middle
World Bank
Religion
Protestant 64%Roman Catholic 26%other Christian 5%non-Christian 1%

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 Daru (-9.0779°, 143.2089°, elevation 11 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. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).