Lombok Weather by Month: Is It Really Drier Than Bali From December to March?

What is the weather like in Lombok, month by month?

Lombok is driest from May to September and wet from November to March, and from July to September it is clearly drier than Bali. Highs stay between 28°C and 30°C all year, so the month-to-month difference is rain and cloud, not heat. Our data point is the south coast near Kuta. Here is the whole year:

Averages 2015-2025 · Source: Open-Meteo, CHIRPS · How we measure

Read the rain line: low from June to September, a sharp climb from October, a plateau from December to March, and a fall in April. For one month at a glance, use the Lombok destination page.

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When is the wet season in Lombok?

November to March. The first wet month is November, at 227 mm and rain on about 14 of 30 days, up from 131 mm in October. December, January, February and March then run at 257 mm, 250 mm, 267 mm and 273 mm, with rain on 17 or 18 days of each month. April is the way out, at 136 mm, and May is already down to 85 mm.

Sources do not agree on the dates. One popular guide says late October or November to April, another gives November to April in a table and November to May in its text, and a third marks December to March. Our rain totals support November to March, with April and October as shoulder months.

Cloud follows the same curve: 88 percent of the sky in January and 80 percent in March, against 52 percent in August. The wet months feel heavier as well as wetter, and laundry dries slowly.

Is Lombok drier than Bali?

In the wet season, only a little. Nomads who have lived on both islands often say Lombok is the drier and sunnier one, and travel guides call its wet season "much drier", without numbers. Here is January, the middle of the wet season, next to March and August, where the story changes:

From December to February the claim holds against Uluwatu and Ubud. In January Lombok gets 250 mm against 391 mm in Uluwatu and 332 mm in Ubud, a quarter to more than a third less. Against Canggu the gap is small: Lombok has about a tenth to a fifth less rain (250 mm against 313 mm in January), and rain days are close, 17 or 18 a month against 19 to 21 from December to February. We would not call that a win.

In March it flips. Lombok still gets 273 mm and 18 rain days, the wettest of the four, while Canggu drops to 205 mm and 16 rain days. Over the whole stretch from November to March, Lombok's total and Canggu's are within about 2 per cent of each other. A nomad who moves from Bali to Lombok in February to escape the rain may arrive in the wettest month of Lombok's year.

From July to September is where Lombok wins, clearly. It gets 32 mm in July, 10 mm in August and 48 mm in September, against 69 mm, 56 mm and 101 mm in Canggu. Uluwatu, the Bali area that comes closest, is still wetter in each of the three months. The other side of a sharper dry season is a sharper turn: October is already wetter in Lombok than in Canggu (131 mm against 107 mm), and November gives 227 mm against 204 mm. If you follow the dry season out of Bali to Lombok, the weather will not wait for December to turn. Our Bali by area guide has the full Bali calendar, and the Canggu, Uluwatu and Ubud comparison the side-by-side.

What does this mean for a nomad choosing between Lombok and Bali?

Weather alone gives a short answer. Choose Lombok for July to September, when it is clearly the drier of the two. Between November and March, choose on everything else: the rain is within a few days of Bali's either way, so a flat with a covered workspace and a backup internet connection matter more than the island. If your question is "where can I avoid the wet season in winter", neither island is the answer, and our Bali or Thailand in January guide shows where the rain really stops. For this year's outlook, see the El Niño guide, and for the island's own routines, Bali rainy season month by month.

This is a weather view only. It does not cover flights, ferries, the cost of living or internet quality.