Weather In Goa

The best, and most popular, time to visit Goa is during the cooler months of November to March, when the weather is wonderful, rain is a distant memory, and the seas are calm and clear. Arriving in October, at the very start of the tourist season, you’ll find beaches luxuriously empty, but many facilities, such as shops, restaurants, beach shacks and beach-hut operations, aren’t yet up and running. As March stretches into April and May, the weather grows hot and humid, and swimming becomes trickier due to rougher seas. Beaches slowly empty of tourists but, much like October, this means that facilities aren’t as extensive, businesses slowly shutting up shop to await the return of tourists the following November.

Many Goans, however, feel that the monsoon, which douses Goa between June and the end of September, is when the state is at its very best. Parties and celebrations are held to welcome the rains, and the countryside turns lush and green almost overnight. Swimming in the sea generally is off-limits during monsoon, since tides are strong, and most tourist facilities are closed, meaning that if you visit at this time you’ll have the place to yourself for bargain-basement prices.

Without doubt the peak season for visitors to Goa is over the short Christmas and New Year period, when prices are hiked phenomenally and many places are booked solid a year in advance. Yet this is a great time to be in Goa: the weather is glorious, the atmosphere is suitably festive, the tinsel is liberally festooned, and fireworks grace the evening sky. Though Goa’s frenetic party scene of years gone by has now slowed to a trickle, this is when all the best parties are held, and music festivals grace the northern coast’s clubs and beaches. Don’t expect peace and quiet, but for gleeful Christmas spirit under the tropical sun it surely can’t be beaten.

The climate of Goa can, in general terms, be summed up in one word: coastal. Most of Goa is a part of the coastal country known as the Konkan, which is an escarpment rising up to the Western Ghats range of mountains, which separate it from the Deccan Plateau. 

Being in the tropical zone and near the Arabian Sea, the climate of Goa is warm and humid for most of the year. The month of May is the hottest, with day-time temperatures touching 35"C (95"F). To top it, the heat is coupled with high humidity. The monsoons arrive around early June and provide a much needed respite from the heat. Then Goa receives the full blast of the Indian monsoon with sudden downpours and tropical thunderstorms. It is during the monsoon that Goa is at its most beautiful - with greenery sprouting all around.Most of Goa's annual rainfall is received through the monsoons which last till late September. Goa Weather has a short cool season too which lasts between mid-December and February. These months are marked by cool nights with temperatures of about 20"C (68"F) and warm days of about 29"C (84"F). Humidity remains in moderate amounts. The nights are a few degrees cooler further inland, due to altitudinal gradation. 

There are no extremes in temperature and no clear demarcations from one season to the other except for the monsoon. The monsoons are the main feature of the climate of Goa. The average rainfall is approximately 325cms, the average daily hours of sunshine is nine to ten hours in summer and three to five hours during the monsoon. During the two months preceding the onset of the monsoon the humidity increases dramatically, and the normally clear skies become hazy and then cloudy. During the monsoon, 250cm to 300cm of rain is normal, although in the Western Ghats the downpour is considerably high than on the coast. Once the monsoon has run its course the skies clear and the weather becomes pleasant. For four to five months from October through February the weather in Goa is near perfect-cloudless blue skies, warm but not oppressively hot days, and calm seas. By mid-March the humidity starts to rise as the monsoon begins to approach again 

Temperature and Rainfall in Goa: 

Monsoon: July to End September (26 inches) 
Winter: Late November to Mid-February (Min. 3"C-Max. 11" C) 
Summer: Mid-March to End of June (Min. 25"C - Max. 45"C)