A bowl of Newar temple cities at 1,400 m, low enough that the grid describes it honestly. Daytime highs in the Kathmandu Valley run from about 15 °C in January to 24 °C in May, an annual range of roughly 10 °C.
Measured against a city trip, the conditions hold up February to April and November to December. February is the most consistent single month: highs near 16 °C, nights around 6 °C, and roughly 54 mm of rain across the month.
The binding constraint here is rainfall and temperature — that is what rules months out, not any composite judgement. Rainfall is sharply seasonal: July averages 709 mm against 19 mm in December, so the wet season is the real planning constraint rather than heat or cold. June is the weakest month on these criteria.
May, October sit just outside the window — part of the month works and part does not. These are usually the interesting weeks: conditions are close to the peak-season answer while prices and crowds are not. The map lets you check them fortnight by fortnight rather than trusting a monthly average.
What the Kathmandu Valley is known for
- Seven monument zones in the valley form a single UNESCO World Heritage site
- Bhaktapur's Durbar Square is the most intact of the three royal squares after the 2015 earthquake
- Boudhanath is one of the largest stupas in the world and the centre of Tibetan exile life in Nepal
- Nagarkot on the rim gives Himalayan views including, on clear mornings, Everest
- Post-monsoon October and November give the clearest mountain views of the year
Month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Precip mm | Wet days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15 | 5 | 29 | 6.2 |
| February | 16 | 6 | 54 | 7.9 |
| March | 20 | 9 | 69 | 11.6 |
| April | 23 | 12 | 77 | 14.8 |
| May | 24 | 15 | 213 | 23.3 |
| June | 24 | 18 | 481 | 27.9 |
| July | 24 | 19 | 709 | 31.0 |
| August | 24 | 19 | 621 | 30.9 |
| September | 23 | 17 | 334 | 28.6 |
| October | 21 | 14 | 124 | 17.3 |
| November | 18 | 10 | 36 | 6.3 |
| December | 15 | 7 | 19 | 3.8 |
Ticked rows are months where every hard requirement for a city trip is met across at least half the month.
Open Kathmandu Valley on the map →
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Nearby regions
Figures are 30-year climatology sampled at Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Patan and Nagarkot, averaged across those locations, from ERA5-Land reanalysis fitted with a harmonic seasonal cycle and a trend term, evaluated for 2026. Sampling named towns rather than averaging the whole region avoids blending valley and mountain conditions into a figure true of neither. Cells are about 0.08° wide, from ERA5-Land's 0.1° grid, which is itself driven by a 0.25° (~28 km) atmospheric reanalysis — so individual valleys, sheltered bays and single summits are not resolved. In steep terrain read these as conditions for the wider area rather than for one village. They describe typical conditions, not a forecast. Read how the climatology is built.