Climate averages 1991–2020
Balkh weather
in January.
A cool, fairly dry month: the coolest and the joint 9th driest of the year.
Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.
January is a cool month in Balkh: daytime highs average 9.0°C and nights cool to about -0.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the coolest month of the year.
Expect about 34 mm of rain on roughly 7 days, which makes January a fairly dry month (the joint 9th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 9 h 57 min on an average January day.
The nearest other city in this atlas is Mazār-e Sharīf (20 km away). In January its highs average 9.6°C, 0.5°C warmer than Balkh, with 34 mm of rain.
Among the 14 cities listed in Afghanistan, Balkh ranks joint 7th of 14 for the warmest January highs and joint 3rd of 14 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 14 cities is 7.6°C; Balkh is 1.4°C warmer than that mean.
From January to February, average highs rise by 2.1°C to 11.2°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 34 mm to 40 mm.
The annual picture
January in context
Monthly rainfall
Average total · mmAverages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated
Every month, side by side
Balkh climate table
| Month | Average highHigh / low | Average low | Rainfall mm/month | Rain days ≥1 mm/day | Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January, selected | 9.0°C-0.5°C | -0.5°C | 34 | 7.4 | 10.010 h |
| February | 11.2°C0.9°C | 0.9°C | 40 | 8.0 | 10.811 h |
| March | 17.1°C5.8°C | 5.8°C | 47 | 8.8 | 11.912 h |
| April | 23.8°C11.4°C | 11.4°C | 34 | 5.9 | 13.113 h |
| May | 30.3°C16.4°C | 16.4°C | 13 | 2.7 | 14.114 h |
| June | 36.0°C21.1°C | 21.1°C | 0.8 | 0.2 | 14.615 h |
| July | 37.7°C23.4°C | 23.4°C | 0.1 | 0.1 | 14.414 h |
| August | 35.7°C21.6°C | 21.6°C | 0.1 | 0.0 | 13.614 h |
| September | 30.6°C16.4°C | 16.4°C | 0.7 | 0.2 | 12.512 h |
| October | 23.4°C10.4°C | 10.4°C | 4.3 | 1.1 | 11.311 h |
| November | 15.7°C5.1°C | 5.1°C | 23 | 5.2 | 10.210 h |
| December | 10.5°C0.8°C | 0.8°C | 25 | 5.6 | 9.710 h |
Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.
Compare places
January in nearby cities
- Mazār-e Sharīf in JanuaryAfghanistan · 20 kmHigh 9.6°C · Low 0.1°C · 34 mm rain
- Tirmiz in JanuaryUzbekistan · 62 kmHigh 9.9°C · Low 0.4°C · 26 mm rain
- Kunduz in JanuaryAfghanistan · 175 kmHigh 8.7°C · Low -2.0°C · 44 mm rain
- Baghlān in JanuaryAfghanistan · 176 kmHigh 9.2°C · Low -3.2°C · 55 mm rain
- Denov in JanuaryUzbekistan · 190 kmHigh 8.1°C · Low -2.9°C · 60 mm rain
- Khanabad in JanuaryAfghanistan · 198 kmHigh 9.0°C · Low -1.9°C · 42 mm rain
- Bokhtar in JanuaryTajikistan · 205 kmHigh 9.3°C · Low -0.2°C · 41 mm rain
- Maymana in JanuaryAfghanistan · 211 kmHigh 7.1°C · Low -3.5°C · 47 mm rain
Read the numbers correctly
Climate, not a promise.
These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.
Sources, method and limitsHow these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Balkh) is explained once on the Balkh year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.
Mazār-e Sharīf lies in the same rainfall cell, so its rainfall figures are identical to these; temperatures differ because they come from smaller 0.1° cells.