Kota Kinabalu in May
ok · worth considering · the warmest month of the year
The year in Kota Kinabalu
Tap a month for its page
- JanJKota Kinabalu in January: ok, busy
- FebFKota Kinabalu in February: sweet spot
- MarMKota Kinabalu in March: ok, busy
- AprAKota Kinabalu in April: sweet spot
- MayMKota Kinabalu in May: ok
- JunJKota Kinabalu in June: ok
- JulJKota Kinabalu in July: sweet spot
- AugAKota Kinabalu in August: ok
- SepSKota Kinabalu in September: avoid
- OctOKota Kinabalu in October: avoid
- NovNKota Kinabalu in November: avoid
- DecDKota Kinabalu in December: avoid
- Sweet spot
- Good
- OK
- Avoid
- Busy
Plan this trip
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The numbers
| Daily high | 31°C |
|---|---|
| Nightly low | 25°C |
| Feels like, afternoon | 37°C |
| Rainy days, 1 mm or more | 13 · 252 mm |
| Humidity | 80% |
| Sunshine | 9.6 h/day |
| Daylight | 12.4 h/day |
| Beach and sea | 18 of 31 days dry and 23–35 °C; sea 31 °C, warm fair |
| Crowds | 73 / 100, higher is quieter |
Ten-year averages for this calendar month. A rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts it. The model these figures come from drizzles more than a rain gauge, the more so the warmer the month, so its days count from 2 mm, rising to 5 mm in the hottest.
Weather read at the waterfront, the centre, 5 km from the airport (BKI): ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.
How busy it gets
Public holidays in May
- Labor Day 1 May 2027
- Eid al-Adha 17 May 2027
- Vesak Day 20 May 2027
- Eid al-Adha (estimated) 5 May 2028
- Vesak Day (estimated) 9 May 2028
- Islamic New Year (estimated) 26 May 2028
Holidays crowd a place out and push fares up around them; they count toward the crowd score above.
Kota Kinabalu in pictures
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CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
What to pack
- Summer clothes by day, highs around 31°C.
- Rain gear you will actually use: about 13 rainy days and 252 mm.
- Sun protection: about 10 hours of sunshine a day.
- Humidity averages 80%; breathable fabrics dry faster.
Each line is a threshold over the ten-year figures above, not advice from anywhere else.
Before you go
Type G plugs at 240 V. Drives on the left. The currency is the Malaysian ringgit. UK Foreign Office: avoid all but essential travel to parts. Global Affairs Canada: Exercise normal security precautions (with regional advisories). US State Department: Level 1: Exercise Normal Precautions. Everything for Malaysia: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.
On arrival in Kota Kinabalu: the apps, paying, getting around, tipping and the emergency numbers.
May elsewhere
In May from
The other months at Kota Kinabalu
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