Været i Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) måned for måned

Ho Chi Minh City has a tropical climate with wet and dry seasons. The dry season which is from December to May. The most pleasant time to visit is from December to February when temperatures and humidity are lower. March and April are the hottest time of the year with temperatures that can reach up to 40 °C (104 °F). The wet season is long, usually beginning in May and ending in October is characterized by high temperatures and humidity. Cloudy weather is more common although periods of sunshine do occur during the wet season.

Ho Chi Minh City forum threads consistently rate January as one of the best months to visit - squarely in the dry season, with sunshine typically lasting until 6 or 7pm and humidity at its lowest point of the year. Typical days were described as reaching around 30C with nights cooling to around 22C, and skies running clear to partly cloudy rather than the heavy, humid overcast of the wet season. Posters were direct that this makes southern Vietnam noticeably more comfortable this time of year than the sticky heat of the months that follow, and a clearly better window than Hanoi and the north, which run colder and greyer in January.

February is the month the Saigon forum names as the south's best: dry, with very little rain, and noticeably less humid than the rest of the year - our row puts humidity at 67 percent and the month's rain at 15mm across 2.7 days. It is not cool. Regulars give around 35C by day and 25C overnight, and our row's 33.8C reads as 37C once the damp is counted. The date that shapes the month is Tet, the lunar new year, which closes restaurants and other businesses for several days and takes the accommodation and the transport with it - book early, and know that some regulars prefer March for having cleared the post-Tet lull. April is hotter again. The record: 23.8C nights, 10.6 hours of sun and AQI 63.

December to March is the dry season here and March is its hot end - regulars say the south turns properly hot from March through May, and travellers report days that felt like 39C. Our row says exactly that: 34.7C reading as 39C, with nights that only fall to 25.6C and rain almost absent at 19.4mm across 3.3 days. Humidity at 67 percent is low for this city, which is the season's one mercy. The practical advice is cotton, shade in the middle of the day and something with sleeves against the sun rather than the cold, since there are 11.1 hours of it. The record: a dew point of 21.9C, a 14.3 kph wind and AQI 64.

Regulars are direct about this month: it is the hottest of the year here, with the end of April pushing close to 40C, and the first rains of the wet season do not arrive until May. Our row backs the heat precisely - 35.4C reading as 40C - though the rain column already shows the season's edge approaching, 61.1mm across 10.6 days, mostly the one to two hour afternoon or evening downpours the board describes rather than a soaking. March through May is their overall recommended window for avoiding the worst of the rain, which puts April at the hot end of a good stretch rather than a month to skip. Nights hold 26.8C. The record: humidity 72 percent, 11.3 hours of sun, a 13.1 kph wind and AQI 63.

Ho Chi Minh City forum regulars call June the wettest month of the year, with rain on the vast majority of days — but the pattern is more workable than that sounds: “it rains nearly every day for about an hour then clears up again,” typically “in the evening and at night” rather than derailing a full day of sightseeing. When it does rain, “it's intense,” which is why the standard local move — sitting in a café with a Caphe Sua Da and waiting it out — comes up repeatedly. Heat is the other constant, described flatly as “VERY hot,” with humidity doing as much work as the temperature number. Our record: 31.5°C days, 84.5% humidity, 229.7mm of rain and 25.8 rain days — genuinely the wettest month, matching the “rains almost daily but manageable” read.

Regulars are specific that this marks the end of the rainy season, with the back half of the month noticeably drier than the front, and describe a typical shower as roughly 20 minutes of rain followed by half an hour later you'd never know it happened - genuinely rare for rain to run non-stop for hours. Our row backs a still-wet transition, 154.3mm of rain across a real 19.9 days, alongside real heat, 32.7C reading as a severe 39C at 84 percent humidity, over 24.6C nights. Regulars call the overall trend cooler and drier compared to the peak wet months just before, even though the column still shows a genuinely rainy month by absolute standards. The record: 8.9 hours of sun, a 9.8 kph wind and AQI 89.

December puts Ho Chi Minh City in its dry season, and the forum's description is consistent: around 30°C by day falling to about 22 overnight, clear or partly cloudy skies, and a low chance of rain — when a thunderstorm does arrive it is usually over within the hour. Regulars call it the pick of the year for the south: sunny, and not as sticky as the months on either side. Worth knowing if the trip continues north, though — December is rainy season in Hội An, Huế and Đà Nẵng, so the dates that suit Saigon do not suit the centre of the country.