🇲🇲Myanmar

Myanmar spans 9°35′–28°31′N as a Southeast Asian country (approximately 676,578 km²) on the Indochinese peninsula bordering Bangladesh, India, China, Laos, and Thailand, with a 1,930 km Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea coast. Dramatic topography defines the nation — the Himalayan northern frontier rising to Hkakabo Razi at 5,881 m (Southeast Asia's highest peak), the Arakan Mountains running parallel to the Bay of Bengal coast, the Shan Plateau in the east, and the central Irrawaddy and Sittaung valleys forming the country's spine.

This produces a strongly seasonal monsoon climate — tropical monsoon (Am) on the wet Arakan and Tenasserim coasts (Sittwe, Yangon, Dawei), tropical savanna (Aw) in the central Dry Zone (Mandalay, Bagan, Pakokku — sheltered by the Arakan rain-shadow), humid subtropical (Cwa) on the Shan Plateau, and alpine/tundra (ET / EF) tendency on the high northern Himalayan peaks with substantial glaciation on Hkakabo Razi.

Yangon averages 26°C in January and 30°C in April with 2,470 mm rainfall almost entirely from the southwest monsoon May–October. Mandalay in the central Dry Zone records 21°C in January and 32°C in April with 870 mm. Sittwe on the Arakan coast averages 22°C in January and 28°C in April with 4,400 mm. Naypyidaw records 22°C in January and 31°C in April with 1,250 mm. Putao in the far north averages 14°C in January and 25°C in April with 4,400 mm.

Major weather events affecting Myanmar include Cyclone Nargis (May 2008), which killed approximately 138,000 people in the Irrawaddy Delta, resulting in the highest known cyclone death toll in the region. Cyclone Mocha struck Sittwe in May 2023 as a Category-5 system. Severe monsoon flooding occurred in 2015, displacing 1.6 million people. A heatwave in May 2010 reached 47.2°C at Myinmu, a national temperature record. In September 2024, Typhoon Yagi caused widespread flooding. Himalayan glaciers are retreating, reducing dry-season Irrawaddy River flow, and coral bleaching has affected reefs in the Mergui Archipelago.

Our archive covers 1 Burmese cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Yangon, around 30.2°C, while Yangon records the coldest January nights near 18.3°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.6°C.2°C at Myinmu, and accelerating Himalayan glacier retreat.