Kaohsiung, Taiwan's principal port and second-largest city, sits on the southwestern coast of the island on the Taiwan Strait, on a coastal plain at approximately 22.63°N, 120.30°E. Just below the Tropic of Cancer, it has a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen Aw/Am) — hot and humid — with a sharply defined wet and dry season, and it lies in the typhoon belt.

Summer, from May to September, is hot and humid, with July the warmest month — highs around 32–33°C and sultry nights. This is the wet season, when the southwest monsoon brings heavy afternoon thunderstorms and torrential rain, and from July to September typhoons sweeping in from the Pacific can bring extreme rainfall, flooding and destructive winds.

Winter, from December to February, is warm, dry and sunny, with January the coolest month — highs around 24–25°C and mild nights near 15–16°C, with frost unknown. Rain is scarce for months as the northeast monsoon is blocked by the island's central mountains, making this bright, dry stretch comfortably the best time of year.

Kaohsiung receives around 1,800–1,900 mm of rain a year, overwhelmingly concentrated in the wet season from May to September, when typhoons and the southwest monsoon deliver enormous falls, while the winter is markedly dry — a far sharper seasonal contrast than in northern Taiwan. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.

Taiwan's central mountains split the island's climate in two: they shelter Kaohsiung from the northeast monsoon that keeps Taipei damp and grey all winter, giving the south a dry, sunny cold season — but they also wring extraordinary rainfall from summer typhoons, and Typhoon Morakot dropped nearly 3,000 mm on southern Taiwan in 2009.

To follow any single measurement in Kaohsiung 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.