Weather in Shimla in February

A good month. February works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs sit at 13.2 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 8 of 12 in Shimla: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 5 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 13.2 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 12 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 21.4 °C and the coldest night fell to -6.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 61 mm — roughly 136% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. February rainfall has ranged from 3 mm to 150 mm across the twenty years measured — a 147 mm spread around an average of 45 mm. The average is real but almost no individual February looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 6.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 47%.

How February sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.7 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 5.2 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in February

11.1 hours of daylight, gaining 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Shimla's extremes of 14.2 and 10.1 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 30.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage. At 2073 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

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.

February in Shimla versus nearby

If Shimla is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Chandigarh is a better bet in February — 11.4 °C warmer, the same number of rain days. Ludhiana is a better bet in February — 11.4 °C warmer, 1 day less rain.

So: February is a compromise. October is 29 points better and is what Shimla 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 Shimla

See all twelve months in Shimla, or where else to go in February.