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Rainy season in Da Lat: what 35 years of records actually show

The rainy season runs from May to October. The name frightens people more than it should: rain falls on 26–28 days a month, but not all day — it arrives in a burst after lunch and passes. What matters for planning is not the millimetres but the number of rainy days. The El Niño running in 2026 cuts that by only two or three days a month.

It rains almost every day, but not all day

From May to October rain falls on 26–28 days a month. Mornings are usually dry: the downpour comes in the afternoon and is over in an hour or so. A rainy day is therefore not a lost day — you put the waterfall trip in the morning and leave indoor things for the afternoon.

September is the wettest month

September brings 295 mm, more than any other month, across 28 rainy days. July and August have less water — 217 and 230 mm — but just as many rainy days: it rains as often, only for less time. The driest month is February: 25 mm across five or six rainy days.

Da Lat and the coast: it rains more often here, but less falls

Da Lat gets 2,017 mm a year — less than Da Nang and roughly the same as Nha Trang. Yet it has more rainy days than any of the four coastal cities: 227 against 205 in Da Nang and 154 in Mui Ne. The rain simply works differently here: on the plateau it falls almost every day in short heavy bursts after lunch, on the coast it comes less often but drops more at once. What matters more for planning is that the seasons do not line up. Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City and Mui Ne have their rain from May to October, Da Nang and Nha Trang from September to December. So February is dry almost everywhere except Da Nang, and by November Da Lat is drying out while the coast is not.

A year of rain in five cities

Rainy days month by month

How much water each month, in millimetres

Which month and which city to choose

• If you need a month that is dry for certain, take February. Mui Ne has one rainy day, Ho Chi Minh City two, Da Lat five. Da Nang still gets rain in February: twelve days.
• There is no dry escape nearby from a Da Lat September: the coast is pouring too. Mui Ne is the driest — 156 mm against 295 in Da Lat, almost half as much, though it has just as many rainy days.
• In Da Nang and Nha Trang the rain comes later: they peak in October and November, when Da Lat is already drying out. November brings 17 rainy days in Da Lat, 21 in Nha Trang, 22 in Da Nang.
• How much rain falls and how often it rains are two different things, and they are easy to mix up. Da Lat has more rainy days than Da Nang — 227 against 205 — but less water over the year: 2,017 mm against 2,351.

El Niño barely helps

El Niño makes the rainy season warmer and drier, but not enough to change your plans. In our archive since 1991 such months get 17–25 per cent less water, while the number of rainy days drops by only 5–10 per cent — two or three days a month. Temperatures run half a degree to a degree above normal. There is an El Niño in 2026: the index rose from zero in March to 1.44 in June. It is not a reason to expect a dry September.

It is cool here: 10–15 °C in the evening

Evenings run 10–15 °C all year and homes have no heating. In the rain the same temperature feels colder: your clothes get wet and the wind takes the heat away. You need a warm layer even in summer. An umbrella does not work here. In the wet months gusts reach 10 m/s almost every day, which is enough to turn one inside out. And people get around by motorbike, where you cannot hold one anyway. Bring a rain jacket.

Roads turn slippery in the rain

The passes around town are steep and the surface turns slippery within minutes of the rain starting. Most rental scooters have weak brakes, and on a wet descent with two people you notice it at once. If Tuyen Lam or a tea plantation is on the plan for the day, look at the sky first: that trip is better made in the dry.

Monthly figures come from our own archive of daily observations for 1991–2025, computed the same way for all five cities: a rainy day is 1 mm or more. That is what makes the cities comparable. The absolute values were checked against ground stations and run high. For Da Lat the Lam Dong station gives 1,837 mm a year over 1980–2018 against our 2,017 — a tenth more. For Nha Trang station summaries give about 1,900 mm and some 170 rainy days a year against our 2,063 mm and 217 days. The gap is wider in days than in millimetres, and the reason is the source: daily reanalysis computes precipitation over a grid cell, so light drizzle counts where a rain gauge would record a dry day. Read the day counts as “how much rainier one city is than another”, not as an exact number of days you will need an umbrella. Season boundaries shift by a couple of weeks from year to year. Checked on 30 August 2026.

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