Places to avoid in May

Monsoon on68 places

The wet season proper — heavy, daily, and the reason prices fall.

• 🇲🇲 Bagan · Myanmar — Monsoon, 20 May – 10 Oct (usually) · instead January
  33
• 🇱🇰 Colombo · Sri Lanka — Monsoon, 15 May – 15 Sep (usually) · instead February
  43
• 🇲🇲 Yangon · Myanmar — Monsoon, 20 May – 15 Oct (usually) — Yangon takes one of the heaviest monsoons in the region and it rains for days at a time rather than in bursts. · instead January
  43
• 🇹🇭 Bangkok · Thailand — Monsoon, 15 May – 15 Oct (usually) · instead December
  47
• 🇹🇭 Khao Sok · Thailand — Monsoon, 1 May – 30 Sep (usually) · instead January
  48
• 🇰🇭 Phnom Penh · Cambodia — Monsoon, 15 May – 31 Oct (usually) — Late-afternoon downpours that flood the low streets for an hour and then clear. · instead January
  48

…and 62 more, 50 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Extreme heat on41 places

The weeks the city lives indoors.

• 🇮🇳 Ranthambore · India — Extreme heat, 1 May – 25 Jun (usually) · instead January
  27
• 🇮🇳 Jodhpur · India — Extreme heat, 20 Apr – 25 Jun (usually) · instead January
  31
• 🇮🇳 Jaipur · India — Extreme heat, 25 Apr – 20 Jun (usually) · instead February
  35
• 🇮🇳 Chennai · India — Extreme heat, 4–28 May (usually) — The fortnight the Tamil almanac names as the hottest of the year, and the city agrees with it. · instead February
  40
• 🇮🇳 Hyderabad · India — Extreme heat, 20 Mar – 5 Jun (usually) — Heat advisories start in late March and the middle of the day goes indoors until the rains break. · instead January
  40
• 🇮🇳 Varanasi · India — Extreme heat, 15 Apr – 20 Jun (usually) — The Gangetic plain at its worst: the ghats are empty between ten and five and the stone is too hot to sit on. · instead December
  40

…and 35 more, 14 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Dust season on29 places

Spring dust and sandstorms; sensitive lungs stay in.

• 🇪🇸 Sierra Nevada · Spain — Dust season, 15 Feb – 15 Jun (usually) · instead January
  23
• 🇮🇳 Delhi · India — Dust season, 15 Apr – 20 Jun (usually) · instead February
  41
• 🇶🇦 Doha · Qatar — Dust season, 15 May – 15 Aug (usually) · instead January
  45
• 🇸🇦 Riyadh · Saudi Arabia — Dust season, 1 Mar – 31 May (usually) · instead February
  49
• 🇪🇬 Luxor · Egypt — Dust season, 1 Mar – 15 May (usually) — Spring southerlies fill the valley with sand for a day or two at a time and ground the dawn balloon flights. · instead February
  50
• 🇲🇦 Merzouga · Morocco — Dust season, 15 Mar – 31 May (usually) · instead February
  56

…and 23 more, 16 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Sargassum season on23 places

The months the seaweed comes ashore on Caribbean and Gulf beaches.

• 🇵🇷 San Juan · Puerto Rico — Sargassum season, 1 Apr – 31 Aug (usually) · instead January
  70
• 🇯🇲 Montego Bay · Jamaica — Sargassum season, 1 May – 30 Sep (usually) · instead January
  75
• 🇨🇴 San Andrés · Colombia — Sargassum season, 1 Apr – 31 Aug (usually) · instead March
  78
• 🇺🇸 Fort Lauderdale · United States — Sargassum season, 15 Apr – 30 Sep (usually) · instead March
  83
• 🇯🇲 Ocho Rios · Jamaica — Sargassum season, 1 May – 30 Sep (usually) — The bays east towards Oracabessa collect a fringe of weed through the summer. · instead February
  83
• 🇧🇿 Placencia · Belize — Sargassum season, 1 Apr – 30 Sep (usually) — The long east-facing beach collects weed through the summer and the hotels rake their own stretch. · instead March
  83

…and 17 more, 14 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Flood season on11 places

The river comes into the streets most years.

• 🇳🇿 Franz Josef · New Zealand — Flood season, 1 Jan – 31 Dec · instead February
  62
• 🇺🇸 San Antonio · United States — Flood season, 1 May – 15 Jun (usually) · instead March
  70
• 🇨🇦 Winnipeg · Canada — Flood season, 1 Apr – 10 May (usually) · instead June
  80
• 🇺🇸 St. Louis · United States — Flood season, 1 Apr – 30 Jun (usually) · instead May
  87
• 🇧🇩 Sylhet · Bangladesh — Flood season, 15 May – 30 Sep (usually) · instead January
  46
• 🇨🇴 Barranquilla · Colombia — Flood season, 1 May – 15 Nov (usually) · instead February
  49

…and 5 more, all lesser-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Hurricane season on9 places

Statistically quiet most weeks, occasionally catastrophic.

• 🇲🇽 Huatulco · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov — The eastern Pacific season opens a fortnight before the Atlantic one. · instead February
  79
• 🇲🇽 Puerto Escondido · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov — The eastern Pacific season opens in mid-May and runs to the end of November. · instead December
  82
• 🇲🇽 Acapulco · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov — The official season runs from mid-May to the end of November, with September and October the active weeks. · instead April
  86
• 🇲🇽 Puerto Vallarta · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov — The eastern Pacific season runs mid-May to the end of November. · instead April
  91
• 🇲🇽 Zihuatanejo · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov · instead April
  91
• 🇲🇽 Los Cabos · Mexico — Hurricane season, 15 May – 30 Nov · instead March
  95

…and 3 more, all lesser-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Storm season on7 places

Tornadoes, derechos, hail — the afternoons to watch the sky.

• 🇮🇳 Kolkata · India — Storm season, 20 Mar – 20 May (usually) · instead January
  52
• 🇺🇸 Austin · United States — Storm season, 15 Apr – 15 Jun (usually) · instead March
  69
• 🇺🇸 Dallas · United States — Storm season, 1 Apr – 15 Jun · instead April
  75
• 🇺🇸 Memphis · United States — Storm season, 15 Mar – 31 May (usually) · instead October
  83
• 🇺🇸 Atlanta · United States — Storm season, 1 Mar – 15 May (usually) · instead October
  84
• 🇺🇸 St. Louis · United States — Storm season, 15 Mar – 15 Jun (usually) · instead May
  87

…and 1 more, 1 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Cyclone season on6 places

The southern-hemisphere storm season.

• 🇴🇲 Muscat · Oman — Cyclone season, 15 May – 15 Nov (usually) — Two risk windows, before and after the Indian monsoon, and most years pass without one. · instead January
  42
• 🇲🇺 Port Louis · Mauritius — Cyclone season, 15 Nov – 15 May (usually) — The Mauritius Meteorological Services run their warning classes from mid-November to mid-May. · instead October
  86
• 🇲🇺 Grand Baie · Mauritius — Cyclone season, 15 Nov – 15 May (usually) — The Mauritius Meteorological Services run their cyclone warning classes from mid-November to mid-May. · instead September
  89
• 🇧🇩 Chittagong · Bangladesh — Cyclone season, 1 Apr – 15 Jun (usually) — The first of the year's two storm windows, and the one that has done the most damage here. · instead January
  50
• 🇧🇩 Cox's Bazar · Bangladesh — Cyclone season, 1 Apr – 31 May · instead February
  73
• 🇲🇺 Le Morne · Mauritius — Cyclone season, 15 Nov – 15 May (usually) · instead September
  89

Smoke season on6 places

Burning fields or forests; the air, not the weather, is the problem.

• 🇨🇱 Santiago · Chile — Smoke season, 1 May – 31 Aug (usually) · instead November
  77
• 🇿🇦 Knysna · South Africa — Smoke season, 1 May – 30 Nov (usually) · instead January
  79
• 🇲🇵 Saipan · Northern Mariana Islands — Smoke season, 1 Feb – 31 May (usually) · instead March
  83
• 🇲🇽 Mexico City · Mexico — Smoke season, 1 Mar – 31 May · instead November
  84
• 🇿🇦 Cape Town · South Africa — Smoke season, 1 Nov – 15 May (usually) — The fynbos burns most summers, and a bad day closes hiking paths, the cableway and sometimes a suburb's roads. · instead November
  85
• 🇺🇸 Flagstaff · United States — Smoke season, 1 May – 10 Jul (usually) · instead September
  86

Algae & red tide on3 places

Blooms that close beaches and clear the water of fish for a few weeks; not the Caribbean weed.

• 🇺🇸 Austin · United States — Algae & red tide, 15 May – 31 Oct (usually) — The city posts warnings for toxic cyanobacteria on Lady Bird Lake through the warm months. · instead March
  69
• 🇵🇭 Boracay · Philippines — Algae & red tide, 15 Feb – 31 May (usually) · instead April
  78
• 🇨🇳 Qingdao · China — Algae & red tide, 20 May – 15 Aug (usually) · instead September
  80

Avalanche season on3 places

Backcountry and passes on forecast; the weeks the road closes after a dump.

• 🇳🇿 Te Anau · New Zealand — Avalanche season, 1 May – 30 Nov (usually) · instead January
  70
• 🇬🇪 Mestia · Georgia — Avalanche season, 15 Nov – 15 May (usually) · instead September
  80
• 🇳🇿 Taupo · New Zealand — Avalanche season, 1 May – 31 Oct · instead January
  66

Typhoon season on2 places

A system a summer stops the trains for a day; it rarely ruins a week.

• 🇭🇰 Hong Kong · Hong Kong — Typhoon season, 1 May – 30 Nov — Tropical cyclones can reach the city from May, with July to September the likeliest. · instead December
  55
• 🇵🇼 Koror · Palau — Typhoon season, 15 May – 30 Nov (usually) · instead March
  65

Extreme cold on2 places

The weeks the city stops going outside — dzud, ice storms, minus thirty.

• 🇦🇺 Cradle Mountain · Australia — Extreme cold, 1 Jan – 31 Dec — Snow falls on this plateau in every month of the year and the summit track can be a whiteout in January. · instead January
  56
• 🇳🇿 Tongariro · New Zealand — Extreme cold, 1 May – 31 Oct (usually) — From May to October the Crossing is an alpine route: ice axe, crampons and the skills to use them, or a guide. · instead February
  68

Too wet by the numbers381 places

Eighteen or more rainy days, or a soaked month by volume — the real rainy season, not afternoon showers.

• 🇨🇷 Jacó · Costa Rica — 31 rainy days, 582 mm · instead February
  62
• 🇵🇦 Boquete · Panama — 31 rainy days, 408 mm · instead February
  55
• 🇪🇨 Quito · Ecuador — 31 rainy days, 280 mm · instead August
  66
• 🇮🇳 Darjeeling · India — 30 rainy days, 579 mm · instead November
  71
• 🇱🇰 Galle · Sri Lanka — 30 rainy days, 379 mm · instead February
  63
• 🇱🇰 Colombo · Sri Lanka — 29 rainy days, 359 mm · instead February
  43
• 🇧🇹 Thimphu · Bhutan — 29 rainy days, 264 mm · instead November
  74
• 🇮🇳 Alleppey · India — 29 rainy days, 449 mm · instead February
  57

…and 373 more, 173 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Too hot by the numbers160 places

Afternoons that feel like 35 °C or more, or heat the humidity turns sticky. A dry, sunny month cannot average this away.

• 🇮🇳 Chennai · India — 44°C afternoons · instead February
  40
• 🇦🇪 Ras Al Khaimah · United Arab Emirates — 43°C afternoons · instead November
  84
• 🇮🇳 Varanasi · India — 43°C afternoons · instead December
  40
• 🇮🇳 Hyderabad · India — 42°C afternoons · instead January
  40
• 🇴🇲 Muscat · Oman — 42°C afternoons · instead January
  42
• 🇮🇳 Pondicherry · India — 42°C afternoons · instead February
  82
• 🇮🇳 Agra · India — 41°C afternoons · instead February
  44
• 🇲🇲 Bagan · Myanmar — 41°C afternoons · instead January
  33

…and 152 more, 75 of them well-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.

Bad air by the numbers16 places

A monthly mean air-quality index in the poor or unhealthy bands.

• 🇨🇳 Chengdu · China — AQI 138, poor air · instead April
  77
• 🇨🇳 Beijing · China — AQI 127, poor air · instead April
  88
• 🇨🇱 Santiago · Chile — AQI 125, poor air · instead November
  77
• 🇨🇳 Xi'an · China — AQI 118, poor air · instead April
  87
• 🇮🇳 Leh · India — AQI 113, poor air · instead August
  74
• 🇨🇳 Qingdao · China — AQI 106, poor air · instead September
  80
• 🇲🇽 Mexico City · Mexico — AQI 104, poor air · instead November
  84
• Dakhla · Western Sahara — AQI 227, unhealthy air · instead October
  85

…and 8 more, all lesser-known. Every destination page carries its own May verdict.