🇲🇲Myanmar

Myanmar spans about 9°–29°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 nearly 5,900 m at Hkakabo Razi (traditionally regarded as 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) bordering on hot semi-arid (BSh) 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 sees highs of 33°C and lows of 17°C in January and highs of 38°C and lows of 24°C in April with about 2,700–2,850 mm rainfall almost entirely from the southwest monsoon May–October. Mandalay in the central Dry Zone records highs of 30°C and lows of 14°C in January and highs of 39°C and lows of 25°C in April with 890 mm. Sittwe on the Arakan coast sees highs of 28°C and lows of 14°C in January and highs of 33°C and lows of 24°C in April with about 4,750–5,150 mm. Naypyidaw records highs of 32°C and lows of 15°C in January and highs of 39°C and lows of 24°C in April with 1,480 mm. Putao in the far north is considerably cooler.

Major weather events affecting Myanmar include Cyclone Nargis (May 2008), which killed approximately 138,000 people in the Irrawaddy Delta, the worst natural disaster in Myanmar's recorded history. Cyclone Mocha, after peaking at Category-5-equivalent strength, struck near Sittwe in May 2023. Severe monsoon flooding occurred in 2015, affecting around a million people. A heatwave in May 2010 reached 47.2°C at Myinmu, then the national temperature record, and on 28 April 2024 Chauk reported 48.2°C, the highest April reading in Myanmar's records. In September 2024, Typhoon Yagi caused widespread flooding. Himalayan glaciers are retreating, and coral bleaching has affected reefs in the Mergui Archipelago.

Our archive covers 36 Burmese cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The hottest July afternoons are in Monywa, with average highs around 34.1°C, while Lashio has the coldest January nights, with average lows near 8°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.5°C.