Weather in India in July and August for riding
 

Hi firstly thanks for looking at my post.

I am considering a 6 week riding trip to India the last two weeks of July and the whole of August, it's the only time i can go. I checked the the average weather information for then and it looks like lot of rain. I am interested in feedback from anybody who has ridden in India in July and August. Basically does it rain all day most days, or it it like Vietnam, where it chucks it down for an hour than then dry most of the rest of the day.

I appreciate India is a huge place, is there less rain in the north or south in July/August.

Any feedback would be welcomed.

Thanks

Hi

You are definitely going to need to be more specific here to get a sensible answer. You are right, India is a huge place with a wide variety of climates, but I will have a crack for you anyway.

Just for reference, I have ridden in both the North a bit and (a great deal more as I go there for work a few times a year) in the South. I should also say I have not been to the far North (Kashmir / Jammu etc.) so have no reference for the more mountainous areas.

In the South (Bangalore on down) it is baking hot in July / August and yep, you will get rained on. The pattern though in my experience is all over the place. Sometimes it will be like SE Asia where it builds up during the day and unloads in the afternoon...but other times it won't rain at all...changes daily. Then you ride out of the plains and over the Western Ghats through the tiger reserves and tea plantations (mountains to the west) and it's bucketing down constantly. Ride over the Eastern Ghats (smaller mountains to the east) and it's dry and dusty and sweltering. These are all only a few hundred ks or so apart from each other. So it's all over the place really.

For example, this year (2018) they had massive flooding in the South, the year or so before...riots over water shortages as the rains didn't come. So it's really hard to pinpoint.

You can expect to be hot as hell either way though.

The North (Delhi, Agra through to Rajastan) is going to also be hot and dusty, but rain will be less of an issue. It's much much dryer especially (and obviously) in the desert areas. Into the mountains (Udaipur etc.) you can get a lot of rain that time of year but again there is nothing regular about it at all and water shortages are becoming increasingly an issue. Good news is in July/August the smog in Delhi drops a little to below "instadeath" levels (January & June are to be avoided if you value your lungs).

So..really when it comes to riding in India, rain makes no difference either way as it doesn't help or really hinder much. It will be hot, it might be wet and the traffic will be bonkers regardless and you will have an absolute ball.

Good Luck!

Cheers
John

July / August is a great time to be up in the Himalaya and Ladakh, which are in my experience the nicest parts of India; certainly the most scenic and with friendly, easy-going people. With 6 weeks you could make a really decent trip through Kulu, Spiti, Ladakh, Zanskar and Kashmir, and spend a few days on a houseboat in Srinagar. You also won't need to worry about the heat, rain and hassle of lowland northern India.

EO

It’s going to be scorching hot everywhere except at higher elevations, so plan on staying in the mountains!

Weather in India in July and August for riding
 

If you are planning for cities like delhi or Uttrarpradesh then it will be burning hot.
But I would suggest you to go for north east India.
The weather would be soothing and a little bit of rain.
Oh yes, this region is beautiful as well

A lot depends on which part of India you plan to tour. The season cycle is wet-dry rather than hot-cold. India starts getting really hot i.e. above 40C starting in April, and by late June you could see 45C or even close to 50C in some parts of the northwest like Rajasthan and Punjab. Starting in mid-June, the monsoon begins spreading from south to north. It hits Kerala first. By early July it has covered about half of the subcontinent, and by late July it has reached its northernmost extent in Pakistan. The temperature typically drops from the 45C range down to the lower 30s. Rain is typically heaviest right at the start of the monsoon, and it takes about 3 weeks before it lessens.

The main concern in the Indian lowlands is flooding. A particularly heavy downpour can put a lot of water down in a hurry, creating major ponding on roads, pushing small and midsized streams and rivers over their banks and over the roadway, and creating washouts that cut roads and pull down smaller bridges. Indian road construction is somewhat precarious, especially if you're off the main highways, so even relatively minor flooding can overwhelm and destroy roadbeds.

Up in the mountains, the risk of riding in the monsoon is not flooding so much as flash-floods and landslides. If one of the small intermittent or seasonal streams on a mountainside gets too much water, it turns into a deluge, and can pull down large boulders and rivers of mud. Although roads up through the Himalayas are getting better all the time, and more and more of them are paved, there are still significant stretches of dirt, which become quagmires when wet. There are few if any guardrails on either side, so the mountainside frequently slides down onto the road, creating major closures that require heavy equipment to clear; or the road itself slides, leaving a many-meter gap over a several hundred meter drop.

Were I you, I'd stick to northern and northwestern India, to avoid the hazards of the mountains for the most part. Maybe start your trip up in Dehradun and head downhill, so you can at least get some taste of the mountains before they become really dangerous. Pass through Delhi and take the obligatory side trip to Agra to see the Taj. Then, head west into Rajasthan and Gujarat so you can see the palaces and whatnot and go south to Goa. You'll be getting wet by that time, so pack rain gear, but the roads down that way are good, so you'll just get wet.

good to ride but with care
 

It is right that July & August are the rainy months in India. But you can still ride in these months if you have no other choice. Even this is a good time to ride to Himalayas as route to Ladakh only remains open from June to September. So July and Aug are the good.

You may experience many dry days in a row or rain continue to many days. And in some days you may experience that it rain for an hour and then stopped for the whole day.

So basically weather has become very unpredictable these days due to the global climate change, but still we can rely on weather forecast services. they are giving good predictions. You may plan for a week according to weather prediction.

If plans to ride to Himalayas then consider a few points.

- In rainy season landslide may occur, if there is heavy rain. So plan accordingly.

- there are many check posts on the way to Ladakh where you may be stopped to go further if there would be any risk. So always take buffer days in your itinerary. Some times it take whole day in clearance of road blockage.