Founded around Fort St George after Francis Day's 1639 land grant, Chennai anchors the Coromandel Coast and is now the 'Detroit of India' for its car plants and the OMR corridor, one of India's major IT hubs. Its Carnatic Margazhi music season, running since 1927, earned the city a UNESCO Creative City for Music title in 2017. Uniquely for this map, Chennai runs on a reversed northeast monsoon: most of its 1,375mm of rain falls October-December, exactly when the rest of India dries out. The 2019 water crisis, worsened by the loss of most of the city's wetlands since 1970, shows supply is not guaranteed, and the same dry monsoon months bring the year's worst air.
Nights sit around 26°C and afternoons around 34°C.
Chennai barely changes season: afternoons sit around 34°C and nights around 25°C most of the year.
Some May days reach 41°C, and some January nights drop to 19°C.
There is a clear wet season from July – December, peaking in November with around 374 mm. The dry months run from January – April.
Wind is rarely an issue; most months sit between calm and a light breeze. Air quality is worth watching: January averages an AQI of 96, while July clears to 60.
Days stretch to about 12.8 hours of light in June and shrink to 11.2 in December — something to weigh if you work to a fixed timezone.
For what you're after, the best months in Chennai are January – March. Expect fast internet (124 Mbps) and a low cost of living (about €600 a month).
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