Discover the best time of year, based on historical climate, temperature, and precipitation.
The best weather in Semporna is from February. — some variation climate
⛈Hot & rainy
| Score | 55 | 59 | 58 | 51 | 40 | 43 | 46 | 51 | 45 | 40 | 43 | 45 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy |
| Temperature | 25–29°C | 25–29°C | 25–30°C | 25–30°C | 25–30°C | 25–29°C | 25–29°C | 25–30°C | 25–30°C | 25–30°C | 25–30°C | 25–29°C |
| Feels like | 29–35°C | 29–35°C | 30–36°C | 31–37°C | 31–37°C | 30–36°C | 30–35°C | 30–36°C | 30–36°C | 30–36°C | 30–36°C | 30–36°C |
| Precipitation | 191mm 29 days | 166mm 24 days | 156mm 25 days | 166mm 25 days | 238mm 29 days | 238mm 27 days | 243mm 26 days | 191mm 25 days | 231mm 24 days | 255mm 25 days | 240mm 27 days | 236mm 28 days |
| Sunshine | 6.8h ☀︎ 58% | 7.8h ☀︎ 65% | 8.9h ☀︎ 74% | 9.5h ☀︎ 78% | 8.2h ☀︎ 67% | 7.5h ☀︎ 61% | 7.3h ☀︎ 59% | 8.7h ☀︎ 71% | 7.8h ☀︎ 64% | 6.8h ☀︎ 56% | 7.0h ☀︎ 58% | 6.5h ☀︎ 54% |
| Wind | N · 14 km/h | N · 16 km/h | NE · 14 km/h | NE · 11 km/h | SE · 11 km/h | S · 11 km/h | S · 13 km/h | S · 12 km/h | S · 13 km/h | SW · 12 km/h | N · 12 km/h | N · 13 km/h |
| Humidity (%) | 87% | 85% | 84% | 85% | 87% | 87% | 87% | 86% | 86% | 87% | 86% | 87% |
| Day length | 11.9h | 12.0h | 12.1h | 12.2h | 12.3h | 12.4h | 12.3h | 12.3h | 12.1h | 12.0h | 11.9h | 11.9h |
This traditional boat festival held by the Bajau Laut sea community features vividly decorated lepa boats parading along…
Travelers flock to Semporna in November and December during its wettest, gloomiest weather, entirely missing the fact that February and March deliver the clearest seas, lowest rainfall, and quietest jetties of the year.
Pekan Semporna does not ask you to linger in its streets. Set along the jagged coast of Sabah's Tawau Division, this working port exists almost entirely as a threshold: a cluster of stilt settlements, boat repair slips, and diesel-scented docks facing outward toward the marine wonders of eastern Malaysia. People arrive here to leave here, boarding speedboats that skim across the reef-studded shallows. Because life revolves around what happens on the open water, your experience is dictated entirely by ocean visibility, swell, and the daily rhythm of tropical downpours. Arrive at the right time, and you step off the jetty onto glassy waters where the sea floor is visible twenty feet down before you even pull away from the mainland. Arrive at the wrong time, and you spend your holiday watching squalls hammer the corrugated iron roofs of town while waiting for port authorities to clear small craft for departure.
If you want the calmest sea conditions and the highest chance of uninterrupted days on the water, February and March are the indisputable champions of the calendar. January begins the turnaround as the worst of the regional storms taper off, but by February, the atmosphere settles into a reliable rhythm of bright mornings, light breezes, and gentle water.
Rainfall drops to its lowest levels of the entire year during this stretch, averaging well below what the rest of the calendar brings. When showers do sweep across the coast, they arrive as gentle, fast-moving drizzles rather than the violent afternoon cloudbursts that tear through later in the year. The apparent temperature sits in the mid-thirties, hot and thick with humidity, but the sea breezes along the waterfront take the edge off the mid-day blaze.
Crucially, visitor numbers remain remarkably muted. While holidaymakers jam the region at year-end, February and March see less than half that foot traffic along the jetties. Speedboats depart uncrowded, dive shops operate at an easy pace, and the sandbanks off the coast are free of the selfie-stick swarms that dominate the late autumn. You get nine daily hours of sun beating down on water so clear it looks photographic.
April marks the transition into the year's fiercest heat. The sun beats down with unmatched intensity, pushing daytime feels-like temperatures well into the upper thirties. The air hanging over the harbour feels thick and stationary, demanding light linen, relentless hydration, and an early start before the midday sun makes the open docks unbearable.
What makes April exceptional is the Regatta Lepa. During this celebration of the region's seafaring heritage, the waters just offshore from Pekan Semporna explode with colour. The Bajau Laut sea community parades traditional lepa boats—handcrafted wooden vessels adorned with intricate carvings and vibrant, sail-like banners called sambulayang. The shoreline packs with local families, boat builders, and photographers jostling for angles as gong-and-drum ensembles echo across the harbour.
Crowds spike around the festival days, but the atmosphere remains authentic and community-led rather than overwhelmed by international tour buses. As long as you respect the baking midday sun and retreat into shaded verandas between boat races, April is one of the most culturally rewarding moments to witness the coast at work.
Beginning in May, the weather turns brooding. Monthly rainfall shoots up dramatically and stays elevated through October, making this half of the year the wettest continuous stretch on the local calendar. October is particularly damp, logging some of the heaviest and most persistent rain of the cycle.
This is not constant, day-long deluge, but rather an unpredictable cycle of build-up and release. Mornings often dawn hazy and warm, tempting boats out to the outer reefs, only for towering bruised-purple thunderheads to assemble by mid-afternoon. When the squalls hit, rainfall intensity climbs sharply, churning the surface chop, stirring up bottom sediment, and dropping underwater visibility from pristine to murky in a matter of minutes.
August offers a brief, deceptive reprieve with a minor bump in sunshine and a slight dip in rain, prompting a seasonal pulse of regional travelers. Yet even August remains far wetter than late winter. Across these months, you must build buffers into your schedule. If you plan three days on the water, budget five; high swells and sudden coastal storm warnings routinely keep small vessels tied to the moorings until the turbulence blows through.
November and December present the most glaring contradiction on the Sabah coast: they are by far the busiest months of the year, yet they deliver some of the poorest marine conditions. November marks the annual peak for foot traffic, with docks operating at maximum capacity, followed closely by a packed December.
Travelers arrive driven by school holidays and year-end leave, expecting tropical postcard perfection, only to meet gray horizons and relentless damp. Over two hundred millimeters of rain drench the coastline each month. Sunshine dwindles to barely six hours a day, the lowest mark on the chart, meaning afternoon boat runs often head back toward the mainland under flat, slate-colored skies through heavy downpours.
Between the crowded boarding gates, surging booking rates, and ocean conditions compromised by runoff and choppy swells, visiting at year-end requires serious compromise. Unless your calendar permits no other option, bypass the holiday rush and wait eight weeks for February, when the skies clear, the crowds vanish, and Semporna reveals the paradise people travel across the world to find.