Mandalay, Myanmar's second city and its last royal capital, sits on the Irrawaddy River in the central Dry Zone of the country, well inland from either coast at approximately 21.98°N, 96.08°E. Its interior position in the rain shadow of the western mountains gives it a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen BSh) — intensely hot, with a modest monsoon.

The hot season, from March to May, is searing, with April the hottest month — highs regularly reaching 38–40°C and sometimes exceeding 43°C — under a blazing sun in the dusty Dry Zone. The monsoon then arrives around May and runs to October, but the rains are far lighter here than on the coast, and the heat only partially relents.

The cool season, from November to February, brings warm, dry, sunny days around 29–31°C and pleasantly cool nights near 13–15°C, with very low humidity and clear skies. This bright, mild, dry stretch is comfortably the best time of year and the pleasantest time to explore the temples of the plain.

Mandalay is dry, receiving only around 800–900 mm of rain a year — far less than coastal Myanmar, because the Rakhine mountains to the west strip the monsoon of its moisture — with what falls concentrated between May and October, while the winter is nearly rainless. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Mandalay lies at the heart of Myanmar's central Dry Zone, sheltered by the Rakhine mountains from the monsoon that drenches the coast, so it receives only a fraction of Yangon's rain and endures far fiercer heat. Water scarcity and drought are persistent problems for the farming communities of this parched central plain.

To follow any single measurement in Mandalay 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.