Phuket Weather – Conditions
Weather high season – winds were generally light, from the northeast, and are mostly hot, sunny days this time of year with the temperatures in the low 30s Celsius. Great diving weather! The summer low season see typical mixed weather – many days in our “rainy season” are hot and sunny, with some occasional thunder showers. Some days are windy and some days are calm. There are occasional cancelled dive day trips due to big waves. It’s often very hard to predict daily forecasts. This is tropical living, it can rain any time or you can get great weather in the “wet season”.
High season earlier in 2021 and 2022 was very sunny, we had several months with virtually no rain. We had some heavy rain in October 2023 – which is usual. The weather in high season 2022/2023 was also very good – blue skies, warm days, although a little breezy, making a few waves on the ocean. Just as you’d expect in the high season! Sometime in May (there’s no exact date) the weather always starts to change as the west winds blow across the Indian Ocean. The “high season” weather starts again sometime in October.
We tried before to keep this weather page updated year round, but it’s hard to keep up with weather reports – we are busy at Sunrise Divers looking after our customers needs! However, check the Phuket Weather Blog which has Phuket weather updates along with photos and lots of useful links.
Weather in Phuket – Patterns and Seasons
The weather in Phuket follows certain patterns which are pretty easy to understand. As divers, we are naturally concerned about what the weather will be doing when we are diving. We like sun and calm seas, but diving continues all year unless it’s really bad – this is very rare.
The 3 Seasons – Cool and Dry, Hot and Dry, Wet
Every year is different. Some years are wetter, some low seasons are drier, and high season months can be rainy sometimes too. But the weather is normally pretty decent here in Phuket! The weather changes to “wet” sometime between end of April to early June. Normally the summer months are pretty good – certainly more sunny days than rain, but the weather is unpredictable and you can get wet and windy days. Rain is usually sporadic short showers and can be very localised – rain in Patong beach but not Karon, just a few km away for example.
The “good” high season weather starts again sometime in October/November and lasts until April/May. The months November – February are a few degrees cooler due to fresh NE winds. March and April can be really hot, with very little wind.
The weather in Phuket is not as simple as “high” and “low” seasons, which tends to imply half a year of sun and half a year of rain! For sure in high season you can get some rain and in the low season there are many beautiful sunny days. All we can say is that on average you get less rain from November to April.
Phuket climate on offshore islands (Similan, Racha and more)
It is worth noting that during the rainy season, or on a wetter high season day, even if it’s raining on the island of Phuket, you are likely to have more sun when you are out at sea. The mountains on Phuket top 500m, so trap clouds and promote thunderstorms. Often a day’s diving is sunny, with a rain shower speeding over, you’ll get a suntan, but you might get wet when arriving back at the port!
