A residential street in an Islamabad sector at dusk, the wet pavement reflecting the cloudy sky and a tall tree in silhouette after a recent storm.
A sector street after a summer downpour. Wet pavement and a heavy sky are the most repeated postcard between July and August.Syed Haad / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0·CC BY-SA 4.0

01 A year split in two by the monsoon

The four moments that define the year

NovThe driest month

18 mm and a 25.4 °C high. Clean air, long views towards Margalla and nights already cool.

JunThe hottest month

38.3 °C mean high, with records up to 46.6 °C, and still without the rain that eases August.

AugThe wettest month

317 mm of rain and humid heat. The absolute peak of the monsoon over the city.

OctThe turn

34 mm and 30.9 °C. The monsoon has already left and the extreme heat has not yet returned.

02 May and June: the heat arrives before the rain

Heat here does not announce the rain. It burns itself out alone, weeks before the monsoon arrives to take over.

03 July and August hold more than half the water

Rawal Lake in Islamabad, its water turned brown by sediment carried by the rains, green hills behind under a hazy sky.
Rawal Lake with sediment-laden water after the rains. The reservoir's brown colour is one of the visual signs the monsoon is already active.XnShAnoo / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0·CC BY-SA 4.0

04 October and November are the window almost nobody mentions

Ornamental gardens at Daman-e-Koh park, palm trees and flower beds in the foreground, the Margalla hills sharply outlined against a clear sky behind.
Daman-e-Koh park on a clear autumn day. This kind of clarity in the air is common in October and November, and almost non-existent during the monsoon.Fraz.khalid1 / Wikimedia Commons / CC0·CC0 1.0

05 How to decide based on what matters to you

The year in one sentence: in Islamabad heat and rain do not arrive together, but in two waves separated by weeks, and the best time to visit is precisely the calm gap left once both have passed.

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Ana Larrea

When To Go editor · Flowtravel

Ana turns climate data and local calendars into travel decisions.

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