Weather in Madurai in December

A good month. December works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. The heat itself is manageable at 29.2 °C, but 83% humidity is what you will actually feel.

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

Rain on 9 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 83% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 9 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest December day reached 35.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 14.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 59 mm — roughly 100% of the month's rain in one day.

December is moderately variable: 11 mm in the driest year against 170 mm in the wettest, around an average of 59 mm. Roughly two Decembers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 8.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 83%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How December sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.5 °C in November, 29.2 here, 31.4 in January. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: January brings 7 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in December

Madurai sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.5 hours in December, against a range of just 1.2 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 18.7 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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.

December in Madurai versus nearby

If Madurai is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Teni is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Munnar is a better bet in December — 8.2 °C cooler, 3 days less rain.

So: December is effectively as good as it gets here — 5 points behind January, which is inside the margin where the weather stops being the deciding factor and price starts being it.

Every month in Madurai

See all twelve months in Madurai, or where else to go in December.