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Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, sits on the northern coast of the island of Borneo, on the Brunei River near the South China Sea, just a few degrees north of the equator at approximately 4.89°N, 114.94°E. It has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — hot, humid and very rainy year-round with no true dry season — where the year is marked only by wetter and slightly less wet periods rather than by any change of season.
There is no summer in the temperate sense: temperatures barely change, with daytime highs around 31–33°C and warm, humid nights near 24–25°C every month. Humidity stays high all year, often around 80%, so the heat feels heavy, tempered mainly by afternoon rains and river breezes. The typical rhythm is a hot, bright morning giving way to towering afternoon thunderstorms and downpours.
Nor is there a true winter, but the least-rainy, relatively more comfortable stretch comes around February and March, when downpours ease a little and sunshine is more frequent. Even these drier months still see well over 100 mm of rain, so no month is genuinely dry; the difference is one of degree, and the heat and humidity persist throughout the year.
Bandar Seri Begawan is very wet, receiving on the order of 2,900–3,100 mm of rain a year, with a peak from around October to January driven by the northeast monsoon, when heavy downpours can cause landslides and flooding, and a relatively drier spell in February and March. The rain comes mostly as intense afternoon and evening thunderstorms. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Sitting almost on the equator, Bandar Seri Begawan has no dry season and only a subtle rhythm between the monsoons, so thunderstorms can erupt on almost any day of the year. The heaviest rains come with the northeast monsoon from October to January, when landslides and flooding become a risk, while the surrounding rainforest keeps the air perpetually warm and humid.
To follow any single measurement in Bandar Seri Begawan 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.