Colombo climate

Name: Colombo
Address: LK

Colombo is warmest in March, with average highs of 31 °C, and coldest in January, when nights average 23 °C. October is the wettest month (359 mm) and January the driest (66 mm). Figures are 1991–2020 climate normals.

Across a full year Colombo averages 2,587 mm of rain and 365 days above 25 °C.

Sri Lanka · population 648,034 · 1991–2020 normals

Temperature below 0 °C to above 30 °C Rain band height is that month’s share of the wettest month

Warmest month March 31 °C
Coldest month January 23 °C
Driest month January 66 mm
Wettest month October 359 mm
Least cloud March 53 % cloud
Hottest on record March 36 °C
Coldest on record February 17 °C
Warmest sea April 30 °C

What to expectColombo through the year

Colombo changes little through the year. Average daily highs stay between 30 and 31 °C, so no month stands out as a season in the way it would further from the equator.

Counted across a normal year, 365 days a year reach 25 °C, 111 of them reach 30 °C. The warmest reading in the 1991–2020 record is 36 °C, in March.

Rain is strongly seasonal. October averages 359 mm against 66 mm in January — 5.4 times as much. Planning around the dry months matters more here than planning around temperature.

The sea off Colombo is warmest in April at 30 °C and coldest in August at 27 °C. Sea temperature lags the air by a month or two, which is why late summer swims warmer than early summer at the same air temperature.

Month by month

Month	Avg high	Rainfall	Cloud
January	30.3 °C	66 mm	58 %
February	31.3 °C	68 mm	54 %
March	31.5 °C	96 mm	53 %
April	30.7 °C	194 mm	69 %
May	29.5 °C	275 mm	83 %
June	28.8 °C	288 mm	87 %
July	28.5 °C	250 mm	86 %
August	28.4 °C	222 mm	84 %
September	28.4 °C	251 mm	83 %
October	28.7 °C	359 mm	83 %
November	28.9 °C	345 mm	80 %
December	29.2 °C	173 mm	68 %

Temperature month by month

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Mean	Record high	Record low	Days above 25 °C	Days above 30 °C
January	30.3 °C	22.7 °C	26.1 °C	34.2 °C	17.5 °C	31	17
February	31.3 °C	23.2 °C	26.9 °C	35.5 °C	16.9 °C	28	22
March	31.5 °C	24.2 °C	27.5 °C	36.3 °C	20.8 °C	31	26
April	30.7 °C	24.8 °C	27.4 °C	35.1 °C	22.9 °C	30	23
May	29.5 °C	25.3 °C	27.1 °C	33.4 °C	23.8 °C	31	10
June	28.8 °C	25.1 °C	26.7 °C	30.9 °C	23.7 °C	30	1
July	28.5 °C	24.7 °C	26.4 °C	30.3 °C	22.5 °C	31	0
August	28.4 °C	24.6 °C	26.3 °C	30.5 °C	22.7 °C	31	0
September	28.4 °C	24.4 °C	26.2 °C	30.8 °C	22.6 °C	30	0
October	28.7 °C	24.0 °C	26.0 °C	31.1 °C	20.4 °C	31	1
November	28.9 °C	23.4 °C	25.8 °C	31.4 °C	20.2 °C	30	3
December	29.2 °C	23.0 °C	25.7 °C	33.1 °C	18.5 °C	31	7

Rain, sun and wind month by month

Month	Rainfall	Wet days	Daylight	Cloud cover	Humidity	Wind	Sea temp
January	66 mm	9	12 h/day	58 %	75 %	14 km/h	27.8 °C
February	68 mm	9	12 h/day	54 %	75 %	12 km/h	28.2 °C
March	96 mm	15	12 h/day	53 %	78 %	12 km/h	29.1 °C
April	194 mm	25	12 h/day	69 %	83 %	12 km/h	29.7 °C
May	275 mm	29	12 h/day	83 %	87 %	16 km/h	29.3 °C
June	288 mm	29	13 h/day	87 %	87 %	18 km/h	28.4 °C
July	250 mm	29	12 h/day	86 %	87 %	18 km/h	27.6 °C
August	222 mm	29	12 h/day	84 %	87 %	18 km/h	27.4 °C
September	251 mm	28	12 h/day	83 %	87 %	17 km/h	27.7 °C
October	359 mm	28	12 h/day	83 %	87 %	14 km/h	28.2 °C
November	345 mm	24	12 h/day	80 %	87 %	12 km/h	28.6 °C
December	173 mm	16	12 h/day	68 %	82 %	14 km/h	28.2 °C

Planning a trip? See the best time to visit Colombo.

QuestionsCommon questions about Colombo’s climate

When is the best time to visit Colombo?

That depends on what you want, so the honest answer is a comparison rather than a single month. October, November, December sit closest to 20 °C on average, March is the warmest month and January the driest. The month-by-month table above has the full picture.

How hot does Colombo get?

In March, the warmest month, daily highs average 31 °C. About 111 days a year pass 30 °C. The highest value in the 1991–2020 record is 36 °C.

How cold does it get in winter?

Nights average 23 °C in January, the coldest month. Freezing nights are not part of a normal year here.

Which month is wettest in Colombo?

October, averaging 359 mm over 28 days with rain. The driest month is January with 66 mm. The year as a whole averages 2,587 mm.

Are these figures a forecast?

No. They are 1991–2020 climate normals: the average of thirty years, which describes what a month is usually like in Colombo rather than what any particular week will bring. Individual years can differ substantially from the normal.

Data sources and method

ERA5 / ERA5-Land reanalysis — Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), ECMWF. Copernicus Licence
Open-Meteo — Open-Meteo.com. CC BY 4.0
NOAA OISST v2.1 — NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Public domain
GeoNames — GeoNames.org. CC BY 4.0

Normal period: 1991–2020
Dataset version: era5-1991-2020-scores1.1
Last processed: 1 August 2026

Measured values come from ERA5 reanalysis and are reproduced unchanged. Calculated by us: monthly rankings, daylight hours, beach and comfort scores. Full formulas are on the methodology page.

Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains.