Uttarakhand Weather, Month by Month — All Four Dhams Compared
The same week at Haridwar, at the night halts and at the four shrines, side by side — which dham is coldest, which road closes first, and what that means for packing
DCDhanesh Chandra MishraUpdated October 22, 20269 min read
Best months
Sep & May
Avoid
July–August
Highest dham
Kedarnath
Warmest dham
Badrinath
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Quick answerUttarakhand runs three distinct weather zones, and treating it as one place is the usual planning mistake. The plains around Haridwar and Rishikesh reach 38°C in May; the night-halt towns at 1,200–1,900 m sit 10 to 15 degrees cooler; the four shrines above 3,100 m are cold in every month and closed from November to April. Badrinath is the warmest of the four; Kedarnath is the highest, though Gangotri’s shaded gorge often feels colder. July and August are monsoon everywhere, heavy enough in the hills to close every approach road at some point. September and May work almost everywhere.
April–early May
Cold, quiet, beautiful
⭐⭐⭐
Mid May–June 15
Warm, peak, excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
July–August
Monsoon risk, avoid
⭐
September
Best overall
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October
Cold, spectacular
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
November
Closing, severe
⭐⭐
Three zones, one ladder — Haridwar to the temples
Every Char Dham itinerary climbs the same ladder: a night on the plains, a night in a hill town, a morning at a shrine. Each rung is ten to fifteen degrees colder than the last, and the whole ladder is twenty to thirty degrees top to bottom. The table is the same week in May and the same week in October at every rung, which is the comparison none of the individual weather pages can make.
Temperature by zone and elevation from Haridwar to the four Char Dham shrines, May and October
Zone
Place
Elevation
May
October
What that means
Plains
Haridwar / Rishikesh
314 m
24°C to 38°C
18°C to 32°C
Hot. Cotton and a sun hat. The reason people arrive at the halts with no fleece.
Plains
Dehradun
640 m
22°C to 36°C
16°C to 30°C
A degree or two cooler than Haridwar. Still plains weather.
Hill halts
Barkot (Yamunotri)
1,220 m
12°C to 26°C
6°C to 20°C
Pleasant. Warm enough to sleep without heating in every month.
Hill halts
Uttarkashi (Gangotri)
1,158 m
14°C to 28°C
9°C to 23°C
Almost plains weather — and 2,250 m below the temple you drive to next morning.
Hill halts
Guptkashi (Kedarnath)
1,320 m
11°C to 24°C
6°C to 19°C
The Kedarnath night halt. Cool evenings; the fleece comes out here.
Hill halts
Joshimath (Badrinath)
1,890 m
10°C to 24°C
6°C to 19°C
Highest of the four halts, 1,250 m under Badrinath. Cold mornings from October.
Shrines
Badrinath
3,133 m
2°C to 18°C
−1°C to 12°C
Lowest and warmest of the four. Road to the door. The evening aarti is the cold hour.
Shrines
Yamunotri
3,293 m
4°C to 18°C
0°C to 12°C
6 km trek from Janki Chatti. The pre-dawn start is the cold hour.
Shrines
Gangotri
3,415 m
1°C to 16°C
−3°C to 10°C
Often the coldest-feeling shrine. North-facing gorge; loses the sun by mid-afternoon.
Shrines
Kedarnath
3,583 m
2°C to 12°C
0°C to 10°C
16 km trek. Highest temple, but the walk warms you; the wind at the top does not.
Ranges are night low to day high. The plains and halt-town figures are IMD station data; the shrine figures are the bands from our four per-dham guides, which explain where they come from.
Month by month, all four shrines side by side
Daytime bands at the temple, with the thing that defines that fortnight at each shrine. For the day/night split, the crowd verdicts and the packing lists, use the per-dham pages: Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri; Kedarnath is on the Kedarnath yatra page.
Month-by-month daytime temperature and conditions at Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri
Month
Kedarnath (3,583 m)
Badrinath (3,133 m)
Gangotri (3,415 m)
Yamunotri (3,293 m)
Crowds
Verdict
April (19–30)
−2 to 8°C · lying snow on the trek
7 to 13°C · nights −3°C
5 to 10°C · snow in the precinct
6 to 12°C · snow on the upper trek
Very low
⭐⭐⭐
May (1–20)
2 to 12°C · snow melting, clear trails
12 to 18°C · Nilkantha clear
10 to 16°C · peaks clear till noon
13 to 18°C · rhododendrons
Building to peak
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
May (21–31)
4 to 14°C · peak crowds
13 to 18°C · gate queues
12 to 16°C · busy
14 to 18°C · pony queue 1 hr
Peak (15,000+/day at Kedarnath)
⭐⭐⭐⭐
June (1–15)
5 to 16°C · excellent
15 to 21°C · warmest
13 to 20°C · warmest
16 to 22°C · warmest
Peak, tapering
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
June (16–30)
8 to 18°C · pre-monsoon showers
15 to 21°C · showers
13 to 20°C · watch the gorge road
16 to 22°C · first rain
Moderate, declining
⭐⭐⭐⭐
July
10 to 18°C · monsoon
14 to 19°C · Helang road closes
12 to 18°C · gorge slides
14 to 20°C · trek a watercourse
Low
⭐⭐
August
10 to 18°C · peak monsoon
13 to 18°C · wettest
11 to 17°C · frequent blockages
13 to 19°C · most landslide-prone
Very low
⭐
September
5 to 12°C · post-monsoon clarity
11 to 16°C · clearest
9 to 15°C · peaks out all day
12 to 17°C · dry trek
Low–moderate
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
October
0 to 10°C · sharp and clear
7 to 12°C · nights to −1°C
4 to 10°C · nights to −3°C
8 to 12°C · nights to 0°C
Low
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
November (to close)
−5 to 5°C · snow likely
2 to 6°C · closes 16 Nov
−1 to 4°C · closes 10 Nov
2 to 5°C · closes 11 Nov
Very low
⭐⭐
April (19–30) — Cold, clear and empty. Not for 55+ or first-timers. Full winter gear.
May (1–20) — Excellent. The best trekking weather of the year, comfortable for most ages.
May (21–31) — Best weather, busiest fortnight. Book 60+ days ahead.
June (1–15) — Very good. Usually dry until mid-month. Warmest fortnight at all four.
June (16–30) — Manageable. Monsoon usually arrives in the last week; Gangotri road first to close.
July — Not for first-timers or seniors. The risk is the road, not the temple.
August — Monsoon peak. Highest landslide risk on every approach. Dhams open but schedules are provisional.
September — Best overall month. Washed air, full Himalayan views, thin crowds, dry roads.
October — Excellent for views, cold at night. Thermals at every dham from mid-month.
November (to close) — Severe. Closing ceremonies on Annakut and Bhai Dooj; roads can shut for snow with a day's notice.
Which dham is coldest, and why it isn’t the highest one
Kedarnath is the highest temple at 3,583 m, but it is not always the coldest place you will stand. Gangotri often is. Three things decide how cold a shrine feels, and only one of them is altitude.
Aspect
Gangotri sits in a north-facing gorge under the Bhagirathi peaks and loses direct sun by mid-afternoon, so a noon reading of 16°C is 6°C by the evening aarti. Kedarnath sits in an open bowl facing south and holds the sun until it sets. Badrinath is in a wide valley with the afternoon sun on the temple; Yamunotri is in a tight side valley with the same afternoon shadow problem as Gangotri, though 120 m lower.
How you arrive
At Kedarnath and Yamunotri you arrive on foot, warm from a climb, and the cold hits when you stop moving. At Gangotri and Badrinath you arrive by car, already cold, with 1,250–2,250 m of altitude gained since breakfast and no exercise to show for it — which is also why altitude headaches are commoner at the two road dhams than at the two trek dhams.
The hour you are there
The cold hour is different at each. At Badrinath it is the 7 pm aarti; at Yamunotri the pre-dawn trek start at Janki Chatti; at Gangotri the shadowed late afternoon; at Kedarnath the wind on the temple steps after sunset. Pack for that hour, not for the daytime band in the table.
Which approach road closes first
In the monsoon the weather at the temples is mild and irrelevant; the weather on the roads is the whole story. Each dham has one stretch that closes before the others:
Under widening and slide repair for years. Shuts for a day at a time in the monsoon; the gate road above Joshimath shuts for snow at either end of the season.
The Mandakini valley road. Slides at Banswara and Phata; when it closes, the Gaurikund shuttle stops with it.
All four are on the road status page, updated through the season. Night driving is banned on every Char Dham route from 10 PM to 4 AM regardless of weather.
What to pack, by month
One list for the whole circuit, because you carry the same bag to all four. Pack for the coldest hour at the coldest shrine on your route, and accept that it will feel absurd in Haridwar.
📦 April–early May
✓Heavy thermal inners (nights −5 to 2°C at the shrines)
✓Thick fleece + windproof outer jacket
✓Woollen cap, gloves, scarf
✓Waterproof trekking boots with grip — ice on the Gangotri precinct and the upper treks
✓Wool socks (4+ pairs)
✓Sunscreen SPF 50+ — the UV at altitude is fierce
✓Rain poncho for late-April showers
📦 Mid May–June
✓Light thermal inners (nights still 1–10°C)
✓Medium fleece
✓Warm cap and light gloves for aartis and trek starts
✓Waterproof trekking boots
✓Sunscreen and sunglasses
✓Light rain jacket — mandatory from mid-June
✓Cotton for the plains days at Haridwar
📦 September–October
✓Heavy thermals (September nights 2–8°C, October −3 to 3°C)
✓Thick fleece + heavy outer jacket
✓Cap, gloves, scarf — October especially
✓Waterproof boots
✓Heavy wool socks (4+ pairs)
✓Hand-warmer packets for the October aartis
✓A camera: the clearest skies of the year
Frequently asked questions
Kedarnath is the highest, at 3,583 m, and its nights are cold. But Gangotri, at 3,415 m, often feels colder in the temple precinct: it sits in a north-facing gorge that loses the sun by mid-afternoon, so evenings are colder than the altitude alone suggests, and you arrive by car rather than warm from a 16 km climb. Badrinath at 3,133 m is the warmest of the four by 3–4 degrees and has no trek, which is why it suits elderly pilgrims first.
September, from the second week. The monsoon has withdrawn, the air is washed clean, every peak is out all day, the roads are dry and the crowds have gone home. May and early June are the warm alternative, at the cost of the busiest queues of the year. October is excellent for views but cold at night at all four shrines.
Twenty to thirty degrees, depending on the month. Haridwar in May is 24–38°C; Badrinath the same week is 2–18°C and Gangotri 1–16°C. The mistake is packing in Haridwar heat and discovering the difference at 3,000 m. Pack for the shrine, not for where you start.
The Barkot–Janki Chatti road to Yamunotri is the most landslide-prone stretch on the whole circuit, and the Uttarkashi–Gangotri gorge road is the first to close when rain starts. On the Badrinath side it is Chamoli–Joshimath through Helang; on the Kedarnath side, Rudraprayag–Sonprayag. In July and August all four close at some point; the question is only for how long.
At the start and the end. Snow lies in the Gangotri precinct and on the upper Yamunotri and Kedarnath treks for the first week or two after opening in April, and fresh falls come from late October at Gangotri and Kedarnath and early November at Badrinath. Between mid-May and mid-October it is rain, not snow, that disrupts the yatra.
Not if they are dressed for it and sleeping low. Daytime at all four shrines is 4–12°C in October, which is pleasant walking weather; nights are at or below freezing everywhere above 3,000 m. The plan is thermals, a proper jacket, and halts at Barkot, Uttarkashi, Guptkashi and Joshimath rather than at the temples themselves. The reward is the clearest skies of the year and empty darshan lines.
