Medan (Sumatra) weather by month
The best time to visit Medan (Sumatra) is January to March — 64/100 in February, 32°C and 21 rainy days. The best season is the dry season, January to April (59/100 on average).
The worst month is November at 44/100 — sweltering, soaked, muggy air. See November →
Updated September 2026 · climate normals from ERA5 reanalysis
Planning the wider trip? Best time to visit Indonesia →
Best season: January to April (59/100 on average) · worst November (44/100)
- Days
- 32°C
- Nights
- 23°C
- Wet days
- 21
- Sun
- 10 h
- Humidity
- 86%
- Daylight
- 12 h
Medan, month by month
Comfort score out of 100 for the kind of trip Medan 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 Medan 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 Medan 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.
BusyChinese New Year, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it(estimated)
Peak crowdsBusyShoulder seasonQuiet
Good to know before you go to Medan
Real experiences from travellers' own write-ups, quoted with a link to the original.
Visas & entry
A guide to visiting Lake Toba from Medan suggests skipping the city center entirely if Lake Toba is your main destination, heading straight from Kuala Namu Airport toward Toba (about a three-hour drive) or resting at an airport-area hotel rather than venturing into Medan itself. Their practical tip once at the lake: scooter rentals are nominally fixed around IDR 100,000 a day, but haggling can bring that down to around IDR 66,666, worth trying before accepting the first quote from a rental shop in Tuk Tuk.
Traveller notes on Medan
What people who have been say about the place — the year-round notes first, then month by month.
Forum posters describe February as still squarely inside the region's rainy season, with daily rain a real possibility running well into the following months - though posters note February is generally a bit drier than January, even as climate patterns have grown less predictable in recent years. For Medan and North Sumatra specifically, posters describe conditions as genuinely unpredictable day to day, recommending flexibility built into any itinerary through Lake Toba and Berastagi rather than counting on a dry stretch. Posters contrast this with parts of eastern Indonesia like Lombok and Komodo, which tend to run drier at the same time of year for anyone able to adjust their route.
Forum posters describe the broader Indonesia dry season, roughly June through August, as generally recommended for travel, though posters note rain remains a near-constant presence across the archipelago's calendar rather than disappearing entirely - a full day of nonstop downpour is unusual, with more typical patterns being a few hours of passing rain followed by sunshine again. It is worth noting that for Medan specifically, the full 12-month climate record shows August is not actually among its driest months - January and February run noticeably drier here, with rain staying elevated from April through December. Posters consistently recommend packing rain gear regardless of the season given how unpredictable North Sumatra's weather can run. Posters generally rate August as warm and genuinely rain-prone for Medan, the wider Indonesian dry-season framing not holding up well for this particular city.
Add your own note from Medan's card on the map.