Kandy (Nuwara Eliya) weather by month
The best time to visit Kandy (Nuwara Eliya) is February, June and August — 78/100 in February, 30°C and 12 rainy days. The best season is the dry season, June to September (75/100 on average).
The worst month is November at 51/100 — hot, soaked, clean air. See November →
Updated September 2026 · climate normals from ERA5 reanalysis
Planning the wider trip? Best time to visit Sri Lanka →
Best season: June to September (75/100 on average) · worst November (51/100)
- Days
- 30°C
- Nights
- 19°C
- Wet days
- 12
- Sun
- 10.2 h
- Humidity
- 79%
- Daylight
- 12 h
Kandy, month by month
Comfort score out of 100 for the kind of trip Kandy is best for, the average high, rainy days and hours of sun a day from the climate normals, and how busy it tends to be.
What's on in Kandy through the year
Festivals, natural spectacles, holidays and the seasons to watch out for — curated and sourced. The month pages carry the detail.
Crowds in Kandy in February
How busy the place itself is — school and mass holidays, the months an editor tagged, and how sought-after the weather makes them. Never part of the comfort score.
Peak crowdsHill-country high season, February break in Sri Lanka, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it(estimated)
Peak crowdsBusyShoulder seasonQuiet
Good to know before you go to Kandy
Real experiences from travellers' own write-ups, quoted with a link to the original.
culture
We timed our visit to the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic for the evening pooja, when the drumming starts and worshippers file in with lotus flowers, and the atmosphere of the richly decorated shrine felt far more alive than a daytime walk-through would have. You never actually see the tooth itself, just the golden casket that holds it, but the ritual around it is the real draw. We got the train up from Colombo in second class, which let us lean out the open windows for photos the whole way, and made a point of visiting in early August so we caught the tail end of the Esala Perahera processions.
Traveller notes on Kandy
What people who have been say about the place — the year-round notes first, then month by month.
January and February are the forum's months for Sri Lanka's hill country, and Kandy's version of "perfect" is 26°C by day dropping to 19 overnight — decidedly chilly after dark by local standards, with posters wishing they had packed a thicker jumper and long trousers for late January. Kandy is not as cold as the higher hill stations, but it is not the coast either. The rain caveat is real: the record shows fifteen wet days in January, and the north-central and north-eastern parts of the island take extra rain in December and January. Kandy works year-round, which is exactly why it is the fallback when the coasts are having a bad month.
Forum posters describe Kandy's July weather as mixed but generally favorable - mostly sunny mornings, with afternoon rain when it comes sometimes settling in for a longer stretch, though posters elsewhere note plenty of dry, sunny periods between showers rather than all-day rain. Posters consistently cite Kandy's lower-mountain elevation as keeping it noticeably cooler than Colombo, around 25C versus the capital's more tropical heat. Posters describe July as actually a strong month for Sri Lanka's east coast specifically, with Pasikudah singled out as ideal timing, while the south and southwest coasts can see rougher seas and occasional evening showers this time of year. Posters generally rate July as pleasantly mild and mixed-weather for Kandy itself, with real regional variation elsewhere on the island worth factoring into a wider Sri Lanka itinerary.
Add your own note from Kandy's card on the map.