Discover the best time of year, based on historical climate, temperature, and precipitation.
The best weather in Pyongyang is from May, September, October. — consistent weather climate
🌦Humid
| Score | 23 | 25 | 37 | 73 | 80 | 71 | 46 | 45 | 80 | 81 | 28 | 22 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate | Polar | Polar | Cold | Cold | Cool & rainy | Rainy | Rainy | Rainy | Humid | Mild | Cold | Polar |
| Temperature | -9–0°C | -6–4°C | -1–11°C | 5–18°C | 11–23°C | 17–27°C | 21–29°C | 22–29°C | 16–25°C | 8–18°C | 1–10°C | -7–1°C |
| Feels like | -14–-5°C | -11–-1°C | -5–7°C | 2–15°C | 10–22°C | 17–28°C | 24–33°C | 25–33°C | 17–27°C | 6–16°C | -3–6°C | -12–-3°C |
| Precipitation | 15mm 3 days | 20mm 4 days | 34mm 4 days | 55mm 5 days | 110mm 8 days | 152mm 10 days | 280mm 18 days | 275mm 19 days | 112mm 7 days | 57mm 5 days | 65mm 6 days | 26mm 4 days |
| Sunshine | 7.8h ☀︎ 80% | 8.4h ☀︎ 78% | 9.3h ☀︎ 78% | 9.6h ☀︎ 72% | 9.7h ☀︎ 68% | 9.7h ☀︎ 65% | 7.5h ☀︎ 51% | 8.2h ☀︎ 60% | 9.0h ☀︎ 72% | 8.3h ☀︎ 75% | 6.8h ☀︎ 67% | 7.2h ☀︎ 76% |
| Wind | NW · 16 km/h | NW · 18 km/h | W · 19 km/h | W · 19 km/h | SW · 19 km/h | SW · 16 km/h | S · 16 km/h | S · 14 km/h | NE · 14 km/h | N · 15 km/h | N · 16 km/h | NW · 16 km/h |
| Humidity (%) | 57% | 58% | 63% | 62% | 67% | 74% | 82% | 83% | 77% | 71% | 69% | 60% |
| Day length | 9.8h | 10.7h | 12.0h | 13.2h | 14.3h | 14.9h | 14.6h | 13.7h | 12.4h | 11.2h | 10.1h | 9.5h |
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Pyongyang fills to capacity during the biting chill of midwinter and the sodden heat of midsummer, leaving its most comfortable, clear-skied months in spring and autumn as the rare moments when the city is genuinely pleasant to explore.
Visiting Pyongyang is an encounter with a city rebuilt from post-war ashes on a scale calculated to dwarf the individual. Its broad, symmetrical boulevards trace the bends of the Taedong River, framed by massive neoclassical monuments, pastel residential towers, and wide ceremonial spaces designed for monumental choreography. It is one of the oldest urban centers on the Korean Peninsula, yet almost nothing you see today is older than seven decades. The atmosphere here is controlled and deliberate, and the experience of walking its open avenues shifts radically with the seasons. While state itineraries and commemorative tours crowd the calendar around midsummer heatwaves and freezing winter commemorations, Pyongyang is at its most lucid and habitable when the continental air turns crisp in autumn and mild in early spring.
April brings the city out of its long, sub-zero freeze. Temperatures lift into the teens, willow trees begin to bud along the embankments of the Taedong River, and the dust of the dry continental winter gives way to clear, sunny skies. It is a period when Pyongyang feels lively and animated, driven by high-profile civic occasions. The Pyongyang Marathon loops through central avenues and over the river bridges, beginning and ending to deafening roars inside Kim Il-sung Stadium. For a brief few hours, the usual decorum yields to a relaxed public cheer as local spectators line the curbs.
Shortly after, the Day of the Sun transforms the capital into a kaleidoscope of mass synchrony. Immense choreographed dances spread across central plazas, parades march past monumental facades, and evening fireworks illuminate the granite pylons of the Juche Tower. The city is decorated to its absolute limits, and while authorized itineraries are rigid and streets are tightly stewarded, the sheer visual energy is striking.
By May, the air turns genuinely warm, climbing comfortably into the twenties. The gardens around Moran Hill fill with families enjoying rare afternoon picnics, singing to portable accordions under pine boughs. Rainfall remains modest, skies stay bright, and walking between the grand concrete vistas is easy before the heavy summer moisture sets in.
Summer in Pyongyang is an arduous test of endurance. By late June, the East Asian monsoon arrives in full force, dragging thick tropical moisture up from the south and colliding with continental heat. July and August are swampy, overcast, and relentlessly drenched. Sudden downpours dump massive sheets of rain within minutes, churning the brown waters of the Taedong River and turning expansive paved plazas into steaming mirrors.
Despite the punishing heat index—which regularly feels well into the mid-thirties—July draws an enormous volume of visitors. Moving through the city under these conditions means shifting between air-conditioned tour coaches and stifling outdoor squares where wide concrete expanses radiate intense ambient heat. Long outdoor speeches and ceremonial visits become genuinely draining.
Late summer does bring one staggering visual draw: the Mass Games (Arirang). When staged, this overwhelming display of synchronized gymnastics and human mosaic card stunts fills the vast interior of May Day Stadium. Tens of thousands of performers move as a single organism under soaring stadium lights. It is a spectacle without equal on earth, but you will experience it in thick, heavy August air that rarely cools down even after dark.
September breaks the back of the summer monsoon. The deluge drops off sharply, the oppressive humidity drains from the river basin, and Pyongyang enters its finest stretch of the year. Daytime conditions are warm and buoyant, allowing you to walk the paths of Moran Hill or wander down to the water’s edge without breaking a sweat.
October is the singular best month to be in the capital. The weather is virtually flawless: crisp mornings, clear blue skies, virtually no rain, and daytime air that hovers at a comfortable, brisk coolness. Trees across the city turn fiery shades of crimson and gold, softening the severe concrete lines of the skyline. The Mass Games often continue their autumn run through this period, offering the chance to take in the evening stadium performances without the drenching humidity of summer.
Crucially, October experiences a notable dip in overall tour congestion compared to the summer and winter peaks. Monuments are quieter, movement through key sites is smoother, and the city reveals a rare, contemplative quietude beneath its grand arches and expansive avenues.
Winter in Pyongyang is raw, unforgiving, and dominated by bone-chilling Siberian air masses that plunge temperatures deep below zero. The Taedong River freezes along its shallows, winter winds whip across wide-open avenues with nothing to block their path, and apparent temperatures regularly feel far colder than the thermometer suggests. Gray concrete dominates the landscape, and outdoor touring requires heavy thermal layers and constant resilience.
Curiously, December represents the single busiest month on the city's tourism calendar. High-level anniversary delegations, year-end state tours, and official winter groups flood into the capital, filling the central guesthouses and motorcades despite the hostile cold. Moving through monumental outdoor complexes in December means battling penetrating drafts that numb exposed skin within minutes.
January and February offer little relief, maintaining bitter cold and dry, whistling gales. March begins the thaw, but it is a muddy, transitional month of bare branches and gray skies. Unless you are drawn specifically by winter political anniversaries, the deep freeze offers the harshest conditions of the year for very little seasonal reward.