Weather in Kathmandu in August

A good month. August is a solid month to be in Kathmandu. You should expect rain on 26 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

August ranks 8 of 12 in Kathmandu: past the worst of the year but short of November, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 26 of the month's 31 days, 8 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. 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 August reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 5.8 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest August day reached 30.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 17.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 56 mm — roughly 24% of the month's rain in one day.

August is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest August on record still delivered 382 mm against 84 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 238 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 5.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity at 87% is the real story though — it is the number that decides how the day feels, not the 25.7 °C.

How August sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 26.4 °C in July, 25.7 here, 24.6 in September. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: September brings 5 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in August

13.2 hours of daylight, losing 0.7 hours across the month. That is between Kathmandu's extremes of 13.9 and 10.4 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 23.1 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 1317 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

August in Kathmandu versus nearby

If Kathmandu is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Bharatpur is the weaker option in August — 6.5 °C warmer, 1 day less rain. Pokhara is the weaker option in August — 5.1 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: August is a compromise. November is 35 points better and is what Kathmandu is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Kathmandu

See all twelve months in Kathmandu, or where else to go in August.