Weather in Semarang in May

A hard month. May asks something of you. Go in knowing what. You should expect rain on 17 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

May ranks 7 of 12 in Semarang: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 17 days, 4 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 84% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 22 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 32.6 °C and the coldest night fell to 20.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 69 mm — roughly 52% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 22 mm in the driest year against 261 mm in the wettest, around an average of 132 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 6.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 30.3 °C in April, 30.4 here, 30.6 in June. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: June brings 6 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in May

Semarang sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 11.8 hours in May, against a range of just 0.8 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 29.9 °C in May — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

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.

May in Semarang versus nearby

If Semarang is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Jepara is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Surabaya is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain.

So: May works, with July the better month by 18 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Semarang

See all twelve months in Semarang, or where else to go in May.