Best time to visit
Thailand in February
The driest month Thailand has. Five of the six places measured on this site record their lowest rainfall of the year in February, which happens in no other month. If the only thing deciding your dates is the weather, this is the answer.
Measured, not repeated
Where it rains in February, and how much
Driest first. Chiang Mai takes 9mm this month and Krabi takes 53mm, which is 6 times as much. The strip on the right is that place's whole year, with February outlined, so you can see whether this is a good month for it or merely a bad one everywhere.
- Chiang Mai 9mm 1 rain days its driest month
- Bangkok 21mm 4 rain days
- Thailand's islands 25mm 5 rain days its driest month
- Phuket 32mm 6 rain days its driest month
- Koh Samui 41mm 7 rain days its driest month
- Krabi 53mm 7 rain days its driest month
ERA5 reanalysis, 1995 to 2024, averaged per calendar month at each place's own coordinates. A rain day is a day with a millimetre or more.
Phuket 32mm, the islands 25mm, Koh Samui 41mm, Krabi 53mm, Chiang Mai 9mm. Each of those is that place's annual minimum. Bangkok's own driest month is December, and February at 21mm is barely behind it.
Rain days tell the same story more usefully than millimetres do. Chiang Mai has one, Phuket six, the islands five. A month with five wet days is a month where rain is an afternoon rather than a pattern.
The catch is not on the coast. It is in the north, where the agricultural burning season starts in February and runs to April. Air quality in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai deteriorates through those three months, sometimes badly, and the mountain views that are the reason to be there go first.
Worth knowing. Northern burning season begins. Chiang Mai's air quality declines from February to April and the haze can be heavy enough to remove the view entirely. The coasts are unaffected.
Where to go in February
The three driest places on this site this month, in order.
What is on in February
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Makha Bucha
February or March, on the full moon date moves each year
A public holiday. Temples hold candlelit processions after dark and alcohol sales stop for the day.
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Chinese New Year
Late January or February · Bangkok's Yaowarat, Phuket Town date moves each year