The climate of Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, is pronounced continental with extremes of temperatures. Following is the description of its temperature and rainfall in a little more detail.

Due to its extreme continental location (Islamabad is located more than 1000 miles from Arabian Sea), the city gets very hot in summer and can be quite cool in winter. The hottest month records 90 F while the coolest month is at 50 F - range of 40 F! During the peak of summer the temperature can climb to 117 F (47 C), while during a cold spell it can plunge to 25 F (-4 C). These are however extreme figures and the temperature of Islamabad is generally a little better than rest of the plains of the country due to its proximity to mountains. Murree, a favorite hill station of Pakistani people having a height of 7,500 feet is located only 30 miles (50 km) from Islamabad. Therefore the hot spells are not as persistent as on the plains of the country and are frequently broken down by thunderstorm which bring down the temperature temporarily.

The winters are prolonged as compared to other plain stations of Pakistan - again due to nearness to hills. Even in mid -March when the high exceeds 90 F the low remains below 50 F due to the incursion of cool air from the mountains.

Due to its favorable latitudinal position and closeness to the hills, Islamabad gets appreciable rain both in winter and summer months. In fact there are only four months of the year which get less than 2 inches of rainfall and these are October, November, December and May. The summer rain is mostly due to monsoon and is particularly heavy. It is common to get as much as 6 inches in 24 hours during a wet spell.

The rain of winter is however light to moderate and is the result of western disturbance - a rain bearing system that has its origin in Mediterranean Sea. All the winter months except December get more than 2 inches of rainfall. After the rains, the weather becomes clear, sunny and very cold.

In short the climate of Islamabad has extremes of temperatures due to its continental location and the best season to visit it is October, November and March, April when the days are moderately warm and nights delightfully cool.