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Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, sprawls along the northwest coast of the island of Java, just 6 degrees south of the equator at approximately 6.21°S, 106.85°E. It has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — hot and humid all year with almost no change in temperature — where the year is defined not by hot and cold but by a long wet season and a shorter dry one, governed by the shifting monsoon winds.
There is no summer in the temperate sense: daytime highs sit around 31–33°C every month of the year, with warm nights near 24–26°C. Humidity is consistently high, so the heat feels heavy, though the dense city core suffers a strong urban heat-island effect while coastal districts get some relief from the sea breeze. The temperature rarely drops below about 20°C at night or climbs much above 35–36°C by day, whatever the season.
Nor is there a true winter, but the dry season from June to September is the most comfortable time, with less rain, lower humidity, clearer skies and plenty of sunshine. Even in the 'coolest' months the temperature scarcely changes; June to September simply offers the driest, sunniest weather, making it the best time to visit. September is often the warmest month.
Jakarta is very wet, receiving on the order of 1,800–2,150 mm of rain a year, concentrated in the northwest monsoon from around October to May; January and February are by far the wettest, sometimes topping 300 mm each, when torrential downpours regularly cause serious flooding across the low-lying city. The dry season from June to September, especially August, sees far less. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Flooding is the defining weather hazard of Jakarta: sitting on low, subsiding coastal land crossed by numerous rivers, the city is routinely inundated during the peak monsoon, when whole neighbourhoods can go under water. The nearby inland town of Bogor, in the hills just south, holds the record for the most thunderstorm days of any place on Earth, and Java's position near the equator keeps Jakarta safely outside the main tropical cyclone belt.
To follow any single measurement in Jakarta 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.