How extreme does Kota Kinabalu's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Kota Kinabalu has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 34 years of daily weather observations (1991–present), from the Kota Kinabalu Intl station 5 km away. Updated through August 2025 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.

The four kinds of extreme

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Kota Kinabalu has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day

103°F Feb 28, 1999

That is about 14°F hotter than a normal February afternoon in Kota Kinabalu (typical high near 88°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 103°F Feb 28, 1999

2 101°F Jan 12, 1992

3 100°F Oct 10, 1994

❄️ Coldest night

61°F Oct 18, 2023

About 13°F colder than a normal October night in Kota Kinabalu (typical low near 75°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 61°F Oct 18, 2023recent

2 63°F Aug 8, 2022

3 63°F Nov 30, 1999

🌧️ Most rain in one day

12.32 in Sep 11, 1992

More rain in a single day than Kota Kinabalu usually gets in the whole month of September (typical September total about 11.4 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 12.32 in Sep 11, 1992

2 11.38 in Jun 6, 2005

3 9.57 in Dec 28, 1993

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Kota Kinabalu's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — February's 103°F is about 14°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Kota Kinabalu's warmest days reach the low 90s°F and its coldest nights drop to the mid-70s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 103°F and as low as 61°F. A single day has delivered over 12 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.

Methodology & sources

Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 30 years of daily observations at Kota Kinabalu Intl, a weather station, about 5 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →

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