Weather in Kota Kinabalu in January

A hard month. January is a hard month in Kota Kinabalu, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 20 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

Kota Kinabalu barely has seasons. January scores 46 out of 100 against a best of 59 in February — a gap small enough that the month you choose matters far less here than the week you choose.

Rain on 20 of the month's 31 days, 6 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 87% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 16 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break; the day barely swings — 4.9 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest January day reached 32.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 20.6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 74 mm — roughly 38% of the month's rain in one day.

January is moderately variable: 48 mm in the driest year against 456 mm in the wettest, around an average of 197 mm. Roughly two Januarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.2 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 29.9 °C.

How January sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30.1 °C in December, 29.9 here, 30.1 in February. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: February brings 9 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in January

Kota Kinabalu sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.8 hours in January, against a range of just 0.7 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 27.8 °C in January — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 30 °C in May and bottoms out at 27 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

January in Kota Kinabalu versus nearby

If Kota Kinabalu is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Sandakan is a better bet in January — 2.3 °C cooler, 6 days more rain. Zamboanga is a better bet in January — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: January works, with February the better month by 13 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Kota Kinabalu

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