Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, sits inland in central Sumatra on the Siak River, almost exactly on the equator at approximately 0.51°N, 101.45°E. It has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) — hot, humid and rainy year-round with no true dry season — surrounded by lowland rainforest, peatland and vast oil-palm plantations.

There is no summer in the temperate sense: temperatures stay hot and steady, with daytime highs around 32–33°C and warm, humid nights near 23–24°C. Its inland position, away from cooling sea breezes, makes it one of the hotter Sumatran cities. Heavy afternoon and evening thunderstorms are frequent in every month, and humidity remains consistently high.

Nor is there a true winter, but relatively drier spells come around February and again around June and July, when rain eases and sunshine is more frequent. Even so, no month is genuinely dry, and temperatures barely change; the difference between seasons is a matter of how much rain falls rather than of heat.

Pekanbaru is wet, receiving on the order of 2,500–2,800 mm of rain a year, with rain in every month and no true dry season, though the wettest stretches come around March–April and October–December. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Pekanbaru sits at the heart of Riau's vast peatlands, and its most notorious weather problem is haze: in drier spells, especially El Niño years, fires set to clear peat and forest for plantations blanket the city in dense, choking smoke that can close schools and airports for weeks — among the worst air-quality episodes anywhere in Southeast Asia.

To follow any single measurement in Pekanbaru 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.