Weather in Delhi in January

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, January is the one. Highs average 22.3 °C, lows 6.8 °C, and rain falls on 3 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

January ranks 2 of 12 in Delhi. Only December scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain falls on only 3 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 January reaches 30 °C; the day swings 15.5 °C from low to high, which means one bag has to cover both. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 31.2 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 27 mm — roughly 169% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 0 mm in the driest year against 37 mm in the wettest, around an average of 16 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 44%.

How January sits in the year

This is a turning point in the year — December and February sit on opposite sides of it, so the month contains the change rather than following it.

Daylight in January

January sits at the dark end of Delhi's year — 10.5 hours of daylight against 14 at midsummer, gaining 0.4 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 35.8 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. Within January itself the daily swing is 15.5 °C, so mornings and afternoons need different clothes.

How busy it gets

Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.

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

January in Delhi versus nearby

If Delhi is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Agra is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Rishīkesh is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: January is effectively as good as it gets here — 3 points behind December, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Delhi

See all twelve months in Delhi, or where else to go in January.