Weather in Dārjiling in March

Prime time. March is about as good as Dārjiling gets. Highs average 19.4 °C, lows 6.7 °C, and rain falls on 6 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

March is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is November, and the month at the other end of the year is September.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average March reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 26.4 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 111 mm — roughly 370% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. March rainfall has ranged from 5 mm to 176 mm across the twenty years measured — a 171 mm spread around an average of 30 mm. The average is real but almost no individual March looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 5.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and the air is dry at 40% humidity, which makes the heat far more bearable than the same figure somewhere humid — and dehydrates you faster than you expect.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 4 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 2.6 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short. Rain is the thing that moves: April brings 7 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in March

12 hours of daylight, gaining 0.8 hours across the month. That is between Dārjiling's extremes of 13.8 and 10.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 20.5 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 2127 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead. If the dates are flexible, April is the trade worth considering — 10 points weaker on weather, and materially quieter.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

March in Dārjiling versus nearby

If Dārjiling is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Kathmandu is close enough to be a coin toss — 5.4 °C warmer, 2 days less rain. Patna is the weaker option in March — 16 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: March is the answer for Dārjiling. If it is booked out or priced out, November is the next best thing at 5 points behind, and September is the month to keep off the shortlist.

Every month in Dārjiling

See all twelve months in Dārjiling, or where else to go in March.