Malaysia weather and the best time to visit

One climate, two coasts

The temperature table is the least interesting thing about Malaysian weather: 29-31 °C by day, 23-24 °C at night, every month. Rainfall is where the year has a shape - and the shape depends on which side of the peninsula you are standing on.

The Malaysian Meteorological Department describes three patterns for Peninsular Malaysia:

• The east coast states: maximum rainfall in November, December and January, with June and July the driest months in most districts.
• Most of the rest of the peninsula: two maxima a year, the primary one in October-November and a secondary one in April-May, with the driest stretch usually in June-July.
• The northwest inverts part of that, with its driest months in January-February.

Kuala Lumpur's own numbers follow the second pattern: November at 363 mm and October at 287 mm sit above a June-July dip.

What that means when booking

The northeast monsoon is the one that changes plans. From November to February the east coast takes the weather full on: rougher seas, closed island resorts, ferries that do not sail, and dive sites that are not worth diving. The west coast - Penang, Langkawi, Melaka - is comparatively sheltered in the same months, which is why the classic advice is to swap coasts rather than swap months.

Whenever you go, treat rain as an hour's interruption rather than a lost day. Sunshine is not rare even in the wet season, and the complete washout is much less common than the forecast suggests.