Malaysia Climate Patterns

Malaysia sits within a few degrees of the equator, so temperature barely varies: 30-33°C by day and around 23°C at night, everywhere, all year. There is no cool season.

What changes is rainfall. The northeast monsoon (November-February) hits the east coast of the peninsula and western Borneo hardest, closing east-coast island resorts entirely. The southwest monsoon (May-September) brings wetter conditions to the west coast.

Rain is usually a heavy late-afternoon downpour of an hour or two rather than all day, and it does not generally prevent travel.

The Cameron Highlands and Kinabalu are the exceptions on temperature — genuinely cool, and cold at altitude on the mountain.