Weather in Kolkata in August

A hard month. August is a hard month in Kolkata, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 28 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

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

Rain on 28 of the month's 31 days, 10 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. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 89% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 25 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 4.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest August day reached 34.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 24.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 96 mm — roughly 31% 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 462 mm against 184 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 309 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 9.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity at 89% is the real story though — it is the number that decides how the day feels, not the 31 °C.

How August sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.6 °C in July, 31 here, 30.5 in September. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in August

August is at or near the longest days of Kolkata's year: 12.9 hours of daylight, losing 0.6 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 28.3 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

August in Kolkata versus nearby

If Kolkata is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Jamshedpur is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Ranchi is a better bet in August — 2.6 °C cooler, 1 day less rain.

So: August is a compromise. December is 59 points better and is what Kolkata 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 Kolkata

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