Malaysia Climate and Weather
Malaysia sees a rainy season on the East coast of Peninsular Malaysia Sabah and Sarawak from November to April. The East coast of peninsular Malaysia experiences wet weather from May to October. The dry season on the East of peninsular Malaysia is May to October and these are Langkawi and Penang's wettest months. Malaysia always has high humidity due to its proximity to the equator and tropical status, so expect 70+. In island locations with a fresh breeze it can feel a little less.
Malaysia has very few extremes when it comes to weather. Dominated by the great monsoons, we are far enough North of the equator to skip out on the spectacular Singapore lightning displays and far enough South to miss the deluge of rain that can swamp Pakistan and the Northerly part of the Bay Of Bengal.
Tornados don’t occur in Peninsular Malaysia and Typhoons don’t happen either. That is not to say we don’t get storms from time to time in the South Westerly monsoon here in Langkawi, but they are not so severe. When rain does come it is quite capable of overcoming the drainage systems causing low level land to flood, flooding across roads and occasional towns.
An annual hazard seems to be the Sumatran rain forest slash and burn month. Unfortunately while we only seem to suffer for a couple of weeks every year, sometimes its in April, sometimes June and sometimes October. During this period you can expect sometimes visibility of around 100 meters.
Malaysia is not prone to earthquakes. The “ring of fire” which is the nickname for the Indonesian islands that stretch from Sumatra to Flores rarely effects Malaysia, although the great earthquake that caused the Tsunami in Indonesia a few years back did cause tidal waves here in Langkawi and Penang island. There was a single loss of life in Langkawi and the numbers vary for Penang although 50 seems to be a popular estimate.
