Climatology
This page presents Bhutan's climate context for the current climatology, 1991-2020, derived from observed, historical data. Information should be used to build a strong understanding of current climate conditions in order to appreciate future climate scenarios and projected change. You can visualize data for the current climatology through spatial variation, the seasonal cycle, or as a time series. Analysis is available for both annual and seasonal data. Data presentation defaults to national-scale aggregation, however sub-national data aggregations can be accessed by clicking within a country, on a sub-national unit. Other historical climatologies can be selected from the Time Period dropdown list. Data for specific coordinates can be downloaded for in the Data Download page.
Observed, historical data is produced by the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of University of East Anglia. Data is presented at a 0.5º x 0.5º (50km x 50km) resolution.
Bhutan’s climate is diverse due to dramatic variations in elevation. The Duars Plain tends to be hot and humid; the Lesser Himalaya region is often cooler; while the areas in the Greater Himalayas are closest to that of alpine tundra. The southern belt of the country at the foothills of the Himalayas (150-2,000 meters [m]) above sea level) has a subtropical climate with high humidity, heavy rainfall, and average temperatures of approximately 15°C-30°C year-round. The central belt is characterized by river valleys (2,000-4,000 m above sea level) with cool winters, hot summers between June and September, and moderate rainfall. The Northern belt consists primarily of snowcapped peaks and alpine meadows (4,000 m above sea level) with cold winters and cool summers. Precipitation ranges widely across the country and occurs primarily during the monsoon season between June and September as well as the pre-monsoon season. The country is also be characterized into six agro-climatic regions: alpine, cool temperate, warm temperate, dry sub-tropical, humid sub-tropical, and wet-sub tropical.
There is significant seasonal range in temperatures: the summer months of June – August averaging temperatures of 24°C -29°C, compared to the winter months of December – February which are near 0°C, for the most recent climatology, 1991-2020. Average monthly rainfall follows a similar pattern, in which considerably more rainfall occurs during the summer months (approximately 240 millimeters [mm]) than during the winter months (approximately 90 mm).