Salalah weather in May

Forum posters describe August as the peak of Salalah's khareef (monsoon) season, running roughly late June through September, bringing genuinely cool temperatures for Arabia - typically 25-29C - alongside near-daily light drizzle, thick fog and lush green hillsides that transform this part of Oman into what one reviewer specifically called a 'jungle in Arabia.' Posters describe waterfalls like Wadi Darbat running at their fullest and most scenic specifically in August, with the landscape reaching peak greenery. Posters are direct that swimming in the sea isn't advisable during khareef given rough monsoon conditions, and warn that prices spike and accommodation books up quickly given how popular the season has become with regional tourists. Posters generally rate August as Salalah's signature, most in-demand season, cool, misty and green rather than hot and dry, workable for sightseeing but not beach swimming.

February in Salalah is warm, dry and brown — 28°C, not a single rain-day, sea at 25 — and a perfectly good beach month. It is also the opposite of what Salalah is famous for. The forum is unanimous that the time to come is the khareef, the monsoon running from about the third week of June through September with July and August at its peak: light rain almost daily, fog on the hills, waterfalls running, the Dhofar highlands green, and temperatures held down while the rest of the Gulf sits at 35–48°C. The record shows that inversion plainly — April and May run 32–34°C here, while July and August fall back under 29. Two khareef caveats regulars give: prices and occupancy go through the roof, and the sea is not for swimming then.