Where Is Hot? The Hottest Places in the World, Month by Month

Which places are hottest, month by month?

It changes a lot. In winter the hottest places we track are in tropical Asia and Central America. In summer the list moves to the Gulf and the dry Mediterranean. This page ranks the places we track by average daytime high, and puts humidity and rain days next to it. That is the part most "where is hot" lists leave out: a 33° day in Goa and a 33° day in the wet-season tropics are not the same day. These are monthly averages, not record temperatures, so Dubai at 41° is an average high, not the hottest day ever recorded anywhere.

Here are the two hottest places for every month:

Read it down the first column. Winter belongs to Ho Chi Minh City, Tamarindo and Goa. In April the leader is Mérida, in the Mexican south, and from May to October it is Dubai, with Mérida second in May, June, September and October. Seville is second behind Dubai in July and August, which makes the dry Mediterranean hotter than anywhere in tropical Asia at that time of year. If you want "warm" rather than "hot", our where is warm in February guide and its sister pages rank by dryness instead.

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Where is hot in December and January?

December is when hot and wet overlap the most, so humidity matters. Goa leads with a 32° high, then Ho Chi Minh City and Bangkok, both 31°. Further down the list the wet-season tail shows: Lombok has a 30° high but humidity above 80 percent and many rain days, which is hot and sticky rather than hot and pleasant. If you are choosing a base for Christmas, warm at Christmas and New Year ranks dry places directly.

In January Tamarindo, Ho Chi Minh City, Cartagena and Goa are level at 32°, and the dry season is firmly in place across Central America. Our January guide ranks the same places by dryness.

Where is hot in February?

The top of the February list is a tight pack, so here is the longer list with humidity and rain days:

Ho Chi Minh City, Tamarindo, Krabi and Goa are all at 33° or more. What separates them is everything else. Tamarindo and Goa pair the heat with humidity near 60 percent and barely any rain, which is as comfortable as 33° gets. Krabi has the same heat with more humidity and a few rain days.

Where is hot in March?

March is the last dry-season month before the heat peaks in tropical Asia. Ho Chi Minh City reaches 35°, with Tamarindo, Krabi, Bangkok and Chiang Mai at 34°. Chiang Mai is also the start of its smoky season, so a hot March there is not an easy one: see the Chiang Mai weather guide before you book. For dry, comfortable places instead, use the March warm guide.

Where is hot from April to November?

Three things stand out in the table. First, from May to October the hottest place in our data is Dubai, and by a wide margin in July and August, with essentially no rain. Heat is the whole story there, and humidity is moderate. Second, the Mediterranean (Seville, Antalya) is a summer-hot, dry set of places, at much lower humidity than the tropics. Third, Mérida in Mexico is the regular in the list, with a hot dry spring and a humid summer. By November the leader is Goa again, and the heat has moved back to the dry-season tropics.

How do you tell hot from hot and sticky?

Look at the humidity first, then rain days. A place with a 33° high and humidity near 60 percent still cools in the evening and feels dry in the shade. The same high at 80 percent or more means warm nights, damp clothes and air conditioning running all day. The tables give a rule of thumb: dry heat is Goa and Tamarindo in winter, and Dubai and Seville in summer; humid heat is Ho Chi Minh City in October, Krabi in the wet months, Lombok and Diani Beach in December.

A rain day here is a day with at least 2 mm of rain, or 4 mm in the tropics, averaged over eleven years, which is what a rain gauge counts. It is not the same as hours of rain: heavy tropical rain often arrives for an hour or two in the afternoon and leaves the day hot again.

Where should you base yourself for the heat?

If you want to work through a hot month, the safest picks in this data are the ones that are hot and dry together: Goa and Tamarindo from December to March, and Cartagena on the Colombian Caribbean coast with a 32° high and little rain in the first quarter. Skip the humid tropics at the peak of their wet season, unless you plan the day around the morning. For the cooler side of the winter, the warmest places in Europe in winter guide covers what mild looks like.