Climate - Mumbai (India)

In Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the capital of the state of Maharashtra, the climate is tropical, hot all year round, with a long, sunny season from early or mid-October to early June and a rainy season from June to September or early October. The latter is due to the south-west monsoon and is characterized by stuffy weather, cloud cover and frequent rains, which occur almost every day and are sometimes torrential.
In the pre-monsoon period, from March to May, the heat becomes intense, in fact, the temperature can sometimes reach 38/40 °C (100/104 °F); this partly happens also in the period after the monsoon, in October and November, when it can reach 36/38 °C (97/100 °F).
In winter, from December to February, the weather is normally hot and sunny. During the day, it gets sometimes very hot, in fact, the temperature can reach 35/36 °C (95/97 °F), while at night, it normally returns below 20 °C (68 °F), and from time to time, it can even drop below 15 °C (59 °F): it is better to bring a sweatshirt for safety.
Here are the average temperatures.

As mentioned, the monsoon in Mumbai lasts from June to early October and is definitely intense, since the wet currents come directly from the sea: in July, up to 800 millimeters (31.5 inches) of rain fall. In July and August, the sky is almost always cloudy, and relative humidity is very high, although the sea breeze gives a bit of relief. In Mumbai, precipitation amounts to about 2,250 mm (89 in) per year. Here is the average precipitation.

The sun in Mumbai regularly shines in the dry season, while in the rainy season, the sky is often cloudy, especially in July and August. Here are the average sunshine hours per day.

In theory, from April to December, Mumbai may be affected by tropical cyclones, although they generally affect either the areas to the northwest or to the south of the city (or at least, this is what happened over the last decades). The fact remains that the city can be brushed by a cyclone passing over the ocean at some distance, which can bring heavy rains to the city, as happened with Cyclone Phyan in November 2009 and with Cyclone Ockhi at the beginning of December 2017.



The Arabian Sea is warm enough for swimming throughout the year, as you can see in the following table.

Best Time

The best months to visit Mumbai are January and February. In November and December, the rains have usually ceased, but a cyclone can sometimes affect this area. In March, it starts to get very hot.