Været i Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) i mars

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 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.

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.

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.

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.