Makassar, the largest city of eastern Indonesia and capital of South Sulawesi, sits on the southwestern coast of Sulawesi on the Makassar Strait at approximately -5.15°S, 119.43°E. It has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Am) — hot and humid year-round — with an intensely wet monsoon season and a pronounced dry season, one of the sharpest seasonal rainfall contrasts in Indonesia.

There is no summer in the temperate sense: temperatures stay warm and steady, with daytime highs around 30–32°C and warm, humid nights. The wet season, from December to March, is dramatic: monthly rainfall regularly exceeds 400 mm and January can approach 700 mm, with near-constant heavy downpours, thunderstorms, thick cloud and flooding common in the low-lying coastal city.

There is no true winter, but the dry season from June to September brings a striking change, with monthly rainfall dropping below 100 mm, abundant sunshine, lower humidity and warm, breezy conditions. This bright, dry stretch is comfortably the most comfortable time of year and the best time to visit.

Makassar is very wet in season, receiving on the order of 2,800–3,000 mm of rain a year, overwhelmingly concentrated between December and March — January alone can bring close to 700 mm — while June to September each see under 100 mm. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Makassar has one of the most extreme wet-dry rainfall contrasts of any major Indonesian city: the northwest monsoon drenches it for four months with hundreds of millimetres each month, while the southeast monsoon brings a genuinely dry, sunny stretch in mid-year. The torrential wet-season rain regularly floods the low-lying coastal city.

To follow any single measurement in Makassar 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.