Taipei Layover Weather, Month by Month

Taipei is wet, and every operator here tells travellers so in their own booking notes. What matters on a connection is not whether it rains but which of your stops the rain takes away — and the answer is only two of them.

What the weather does to a visit here

Three things on a Taipei layover depend on the sky, and everything else does not. The changing of the honour guard at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is cancelled when it rains. The view from the Taipei 101 observatory is worth NT$600 on a clear day and nothing on a grey one. The Elephant Mountain climb is a set of wet stone stairs in heavy rain.

Temples, the memorial hall's own exhibition floor, the arcaded shopfronts on Dihua Street and a covered night market all work perfectly in rain. So a wet window is not a lost window; it is a window with a different stop list, and every operator here will reorder a route on the day if you ask.

Taipei month by month

Figures below are the 1991–2020 climate normals published by Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration: mean daily maximum, mean daily minimum, mean monthly rainfall and the mean number of days with rain.

January — 19.4°C by day, 14.2°C at night, 94 mm over about 14 rain days

The coolest month, and the driest stretch of the year along with November. Rain falls on about fourteen days but arrives as drizzle rather than downpour, so the guard change usually runs. Bring a jacket: an unheated temple courtyard at fourteen degrees is colder than the number suggests.

February — 20.3°C by day, 14.4°C at night, 102 mm over about 12 rain days

Lunar New Year falls in late January or February and closes the memorial hall for two days, along with much of Dihua Street's normal trade. The street itself becomes the city's New Year market instead, which is the busiest and most interesting week of its year. Check the dates against your connection.

March — 22.7°C by day, 16.0°C at night, 108 mm over about 14 rain days

Temperatures climb into the low twenties and the rain stays moderate. Fourteen rain days is the same count as January, but the showers are warmer and shorter. This is the last month before the humidity arrives, which makes it the easiest one for a walking route.

April — 26.4°C by day, 19.3°C at night, 101 mm over about 14 rain days

The last comfortable month before the plum rains. Afternoons reach the mid twenties and the evenings stay warm enough for a night market without a jacket. Rainfall is still around a hundred millimetres, which is a third of what June brings, so a full outdoor route is realistic.

May — 29.7°C by day, 22.6°C at night, 225 mm over about 14 rain days

The plum rains begin. Monthly rainfall more than doubles to 225 mm without the rain-day count changing, which means the same number of wet days carrying much heavier rain. Afternoons touch thirty degrees. Plan an indoor stop into any route booked this month.

June — 32.7°C by day, 25.1°C at night, 235 mm over about 16 rain days

The wettest half of the plum rain season and the month with the most rain days in the year, at nearly sixteen. Afternoon maxima pass thirty-two degrees with high humidity behind them. A covered night market and a temple courtyard are worth more than a viewing deck in June.

July — 34.8°C by day, 26.6°C at night, 214 mm over about 12 rain days

The hottest month, with a mean daily maximum of nearly thirty-five degrees, and the start of the typhoon season. Rain days drop to under twelve, so the rain when it comes is concentrated. A typhoon warning closes the Airport MRT and grounds flights, which is a connection problem rather than a tour problem.

August — 34.2°C by day, 26.4°C at night, 237 mm over about 15 rain days

The wettest month of the year at 237 mm, and still above thirty-four degrees by afternoon. Typhoon activity peaks around now. An eight-hour window in August is better spent on two long indoor stops than five short outdoor ones, and every operator will reorder a route if you ask.

September — 31.5°C by day, 25.0°C at night, 237 mm over about 14 rain days

Rainfall stays at the August figure while temperatures start to fall, which is the last of the typhoon season. Evenings become usable again for the first time since May. Watch the forecast rather than the calendar: a clear September day is one of the best in the year here.

October — 27.6°C by day, 22.4°C at night, 163 mm over about 13 rain days

Rainfall drops by a third and the afternoon maximum falls below twenty-eight degrees. Twelve or thirteen rain days is close to the annual low. October and November are the two months where a six-hour window will most likely give you the observatory view you paid for.

November — 24.8°C by day, 19.7°C at night, 89 mm over about 12 rain days

The driest month of the year at 89 mm, with afternoons around twenty-five degrees. The northeast monsoon starts to reach the city towards the end of it, bringing grey days rather than heavy rain. A full outdoor route works from the first stop to the last.

December — 21.0°C by day, 16.0°C at night, 97 mm over about 13 rain days

Cool, grey and dry by the standards of the rest of the year. Afternoons sit around twenty-one degrees and rainfall is under a hundred millimetres. The memorial hall closes for two days over the Lunar New Year period in some years, so check the date if your connection falls in late December.

The seasons, and which one you want

If you can choose your connection, choose one between October and April. If you cannot — and on a layover you usually cannot — the season changes what you book, not whether you book. The month-by-month figures above are the whole of the argument.

Typhoons, and what actually happens

The typhoon season runs from roughly July into September. What a warning does to a layover is simple and it is not about the tour: flights are cancelled or diverted and the Airport MRT suspends service, so the connection itself disappears before the question of sightseeing arises.

Watch the forecast in the two days before you fly rather than the month on the calendar. A typhoon is a weather event with a name and a track, not a season-long condition, and most August days in Taipei are simply hot.

Best time of day

Morning, in every month between May and September. Afternoon maxima run above thirty degrees from May to September and above thirty-four in July and August, and the humidity behind those numbers is what makes the difference between a walk and an ordeal. A route that starts at eight is a different day from one that starts at one.

From November to March the reverse holds: mornings are grey and cool, and the middle of the day is the pleasant part. In every month the guard change stops at five and the memorial hall closes at six, so an afternoon start loses both.

What to wear, whatever the month

Something waterproof between April and October, and a layer between November and March. Three operators list the same three items in their own booking notes: cash, comfortable walking shoes and a light jacket. One adds an umbrella or a raincoat explicitly, on the grounds that the weather here is hard to predict.

Temples ask nothing of your clothing beyond ordinary courtesy, and none of the stops on these routes has a dress code. Shoes matter more than anything else, because a Taipei layover is mostly walking between short drives.

Weather questions