Climate and average weather in Madang

In Madang, 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 March.

Best: late May to mid October

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Madang typically varies from 24°C to 29°C, and is rarely below 23°C or above 31°C. January is the hottest month of the year, while July is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best time of year to visit Madang for warm-weather activities is from late May to mid October.

Hottest
Jan
29°
Coldest
Jul
24°
Wettest
Mar
466 mm
Driest
Jun
150 mm
Rain / yr
3582 mm
288 wet days
Daylight
11.7–12.3 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
4 m
5.2°S
Clearest
Aug
69% cloud

Madang is human settlement in Papua New Guinea.

Founded
1884

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

Madang 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 late May to mid October.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

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

Temperatures in Madang 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 24°C; the coolest is July, with an average low of 24°C and high of 28°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
Mar2924
Apr2924
May2924
Jun2824
Jul2824
Aug2824
Sep2924
Oct2924
Nov2924
Dec2924

How hot and cold Madang 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, Madang feels like about 35°C (around January 23). About 282 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)
Jan35292424
Feb34292424
Mar34292424
Apr33292424
May33292424
Jun33282424
Jul32282424
Aug32282424
Sep32292424
Oct33292424
Nov33292424
Dec34292424

Average hourly temperature in Madang

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 July, near 24°C.

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

Madang 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°43028.812.32.9
Feb29° / 24°39526.412.22.8
Mar29° / 24°46628.2123.0
Apr29° / 24°41427.411.93.1
May29° / 24°26224.411.83.7
Jun28° / 24°15020.611.74.1
Jul28° / 24°16920.511.74.4
Aug28° / 24°15117.611.84.7
Sep29° / 24°15117.3124.5
Oct29° / 24°22922.112.13.9
Nov29° / 24°33725.912.23.3
Dec29° / 24°4272912.32.9

Chance of rain

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

Madang gets about 3582 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 Oct 27 to May 14, peaking in February at about 95% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Aug 16.

March is the wettest month by volume, with 466 mm over about 28 wet days; June is the driest, with 150 mm.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%110%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetvery wetFeb 16 · 95%Aug 16 · 55%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan9329
Feb9426
Mar9128
Apr9127
May7924
Jun6921
Jul6621
Aug5718
Sep5817
Oct7122
Nov8626
Dec9329

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Madang collects about 3582 mm of rain across 288 wet days — roughly 298 mm in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. March is the wettest month with 466 mm, while June is the driest at just 150 mm. The three wettest months alone bring about 37% of the year’s total.

050100150200250300350400450500550JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec430395466414262150169151151229337427
Rainfall (mm)Rain days
Jan43029
Feb39526
Mar46628
Apr41427
May26224
Jun15021
Jul16921
Aug15118
Sep15117
Oct22922
Nov33726
Dec42729

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

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

In Madang, 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 9 and lasts for 5.7 months, ending around October 27. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 35% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around October 28 and lasts for 6.3 months, ending around May 8. The cloudiest month is February, 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%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAug 20 · 37%Jan 31 · 2%mostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan595
Feb397
Mar496
Apr793
May2080
Jun2674
Jul2773
Aug3565
Sep3070
Oct2278
Nov1189
Dec496

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, Madang barely changes through the year: days stay near 12 h 18 min of light in every season.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan12.36:186:34
Feb12.26:266:37
Mar12.06:256:28
Apr11.96:216:14
May11.86:206:06
Jun11.76:266:08
Jul11.76:316:14
Aug11.86:266:16
Sep12.06:126:10
Oct12.15:586:05
Nov12.25:556:09
Dec12.36:046:22

Sunny days

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

Madang averages about 2 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 5.3 months, from around May 14 to Oct 22. The sunniest month is August, with roughly 6 sunny days (gloomy).

The greyest month is January, down near 1 sunny days — about 91% fewer than the August peak.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedAug 216 daysJan 310 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan1Gloomy
Feb0Gloomy
Mar0Gloomy
Apr1Gloomy
May3Gloomy
Jun3Gloomy
Jul4Gloomy
Aug6Gloomy
Sep5Gloomy
Oct3Gloomy
Nov1Gloomy
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.

Madang 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 (%)
Jan4258
Feb4753
Mar4951
Apr4852
May4258
Jun5842
Jul8317
Aug9010
Sep8911
Oct7921
Nov5743
Dec4060

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

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmJan 31 · 5 km/hMay 14 · 4 km/h
Wind speed (km/h)Feels
Jan5calm
Feb5calm
Mar5calm
Apr4calm
May4calm
Jun4calm
Jul4calm
Aug4calm
Sep4calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec4calm

Hazard calendar for Madang

In seasonPeak

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

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

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

Best time to visit Madang

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

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

Around early June, Madang 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 time of year to visit Madang for general outdoor tourist activities is from late May to mid October, with a peak score in the third week of August.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 15 · 4.8

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
Jan2.9poor
Feb2.8poor
Mar3.0poor
Apr3.1poor
May3.7fair
Jun4.1fair
Jul4.4fair
Aug4.7fair
Sep4.5fair
Oct3.9fair
Nov3.3poor
Dec2.9poor

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

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationAug 18 · 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 Madang, 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.

Madang packs about the same all year — highs hold near 29°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 January, Madang sees daytime highs around 29°C and nights near 24°C. Pack light clothes and rain gear. Worth having: sun protection. About 29 days see rain.

Sea temperature near Madang

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 15 km away) is warmest in December at about 30°C and coldest in August near 28°C.

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

26°28°30°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwarmtropicalcomfortable to swim
Sea temperature (°C)Comfort
Jan29Tropical
Feb29Tropical
Mar29Tropical
Apr29Tropical
May29Tropical
Jun29Tropical
Jul28Tropical
Aug28Warm
Sep28Tropical
Oct29Tropical
Nov29Tropical
Dec30Tropical

UV index (midday) in Madang 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 Madang peaks around March 13 at about 16 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near June 21 at about 10 (extreme).

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

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecExtremeMar 13UV 16Jun 21UV 10
UV index (midday)Level
Jan15Extreme
Feb16Extreme
Mar17Extreme
Apr15Extreme
May12Extreme
Jun10Extreme
Jul11Extreme
Aug12Extreme
Sep14Extreme
Oct14Extreme
Nov13Extreme
Dec14Extreme

Average hourly UV index in Madang

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 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)
Jan8.57
Feb8.57
Mar8.57
Apr86.5
May86
Jun7.55.5
Jul7.55.5
Aug7.56
Sep86.5
Oct8.56.5
Nov8.56.5
Dec8.56.5
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Madang 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. Madang banks about 6,009 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)
Jan522
Feb471
Mar517
Apr494
May510
Jun489
Jul497
Aug497
Sep488
Oct510
Nov496
Dec518

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.

Madang receives about 4.8 kWh/m² a day of solar energy — bright — and it stays remarkably steady, holding between 4.3 and 5.5 kWh/m² all year. For solar panels, output here is a flat line, not a seasonal wave.

01234567JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmoderatebrightintenseOct 25.5 kWhJun 274.3 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan4.8Bright
Feb4.7Bright
Mar4.6Bright
Apr4.5Bright
May4.4Bright
Jun4.4Bright
Jul4.4Bright
Aug5.0Bright
Sep5.3Bright
Oct5.4Bright
Nov5.0Bright
Dec4.7Bright

Where is Madang?

Madang sits at 5.2°S, 145.8°E, 4 m above sea level, in Papua New Guinea. The nearest listed city is Goroka, 106 km away.

GorokaMount HagenLaeBuloloMendiWewakPopondettaKimbe

Topography around Madang

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

Within 3 km, the terrain around Madang has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 45 m around an average of 9 m above sea level; within 16 km, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 548 m; within 80 km, extreme variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 3,835 m.

The land around Madang is covered by trees (45%), water (25%) and grassland (21%) within 3 km, water (51%) and trees (47%) within 16 km, and trees (60%) and water (38%) within 80 km.

3 km
45 m
16 km
548 m
80 km
3,835 m
treesgrasslandartificial surfaceswatermangroves
Nearby: Goroka 106 km · Mount Hagen 186 km · Lae 214 km · Bulolo 240 km · Mendi 257 km · Wewak 303 km · Popondetta 478 km · Kimbe 483 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 Madang (-5.2215°, 145.7869°, elevation 4 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).