Best time to visit Leh

Leh is a city of two halves. June scores 89 and March scores 28 — a 61-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to September — 4 months within ten points of the best.

July is the warmest month at 24.6 °C and January the coolest at -2.9 °C — a 27.5 °C spread across the year. It never reaches 30 °C in an average year, which takes heat off the list of reasons to avoid any particular month. At the other end, 180 nights a year fall below freezing: the winter here is a real one.

There is a real wet season here. July to August carry the rain — up to 10 wet days in a month — while October to December drop as low as 2. That 8-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Leh, and it moves further than the temperature does.

Daylight runs from 9.9 hours in winter to 14.4 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

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

Leh month by month