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Darwin, capital of Australia's Northern Territory, sits on the tropical north coast — the 'Top End' — on the Timor Sea at approximately 12.46°S, 130.85°E. Just 12 degrees south of the equator, it has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw) that is hot and humid year-round, with the year divided sharply not into hot and cold but into a wet season and a dry season governed by the monsoon. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, its seasons are reversed relative to the Northern.
The wet season, roughly November to April (the local summer), is hot, extremely humid and stormy, with highs around 32–33°C and humidity often above 80%, making the heat feel oppressive. Monsoon rains and dramatic thunderstorms — the build-up to which locals call 'the build-up' — dominate, and this is tropical cyclone season, when storms off the Timor Sea can threaten the coast; the city was devastated by Cyclone Tracy in 1974. January is the wettest month.
The dry season, from May to September (the local winter), is warm, sunny and far more comfortable, with highs around 30–32°C, low humidity and almost no rain. Nights are pleasantly cool, dropping to around 17–20°C in June and July — as cool as Darwin gets — and frost is unknown. This warm, dry, sunny stretch is comfortably the best time to visit.
Darwin is very wet in season, receiving on the order of 1,700 mm of rain a year, the overwhelming majority falling in the wet season from December to March, when monsoon downpours and thunderstorms are near-daily; the dry season from May to September sees virtually no rain at all. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
The rhythm of Darwin's weather is the monsoon: the sharp swing between the humid, storm-lashed wet season and the sunny, comfortable dry season defines life in the Top End. The pre-monsoon 'build-up' of October to December, with its towering thunderheads and spectacular lightning, is famous, and the wet season brings the ever-present threat of tropical cyclones spinning off the surrounding tropical seas.
To follow any single measurement in Darwin more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.