Best time to visit Delhi

Delhi is a city of two halves. December scores 98 and July scores 21 — a 77-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. 4 of the twelve months sit within ten points of the best, so there is more than one right answer.

May is the warmest month at 42.6 °C and January the coolest at 22.3 °C — a 20.3 °C spread across the year. 242 days a year top 30 °C, more than a third of the calendar, so heat is the baseline here rather than a season.

There is a real wet season here. July to August carry the rain — up to 21 wet days in a month — while January, February, March, April, October, November and December drop as low as 1. That 20-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Delhi, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 10.3 hours in winter to 14 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are December, January, February. The one to think twice about is July. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight and crowd levels.

Delhi month by month