Baby clothes month by month: a Pakistan weather calendar

How to use this calendar

This is a rough guide based on the plains of Punjab, where most of the country’s families live, from Lahore to Multan. Karachi, Quetta and the north run on different clocks, and there are notes for them at the end. Every year is a little different, and your baby’s room matters more than the month, so treat this as a starting point and let the chest check decide: feel the chest or the back of the neck, as the NHS and the Lullaby Trust suggest, and add or remove a layer.

It also helps with shopping. Knowing which months are coming lets you buy the right kind of clothes in the right size ahead of time, rather than rushing out on the first cold night or the first 40°C day. Our post on buying for next season explains how to pick the size.

December to February: winter

• December: full winter layers arrive. A vest under a knit set, a cardigan, socks, and a warm outer suit for going out. Footed sleepsuits at night.
• January: usually the coldest month, with fog in Punjab. A warm knit like our Charcoal Waffle-Knit Henley & Jogger Set, which is wool, earns its place now. See our guide on dressing a baby for winter in Pakistan.
• February: afternoons warm up; mornings and nights stay cold. Start dropping the cardigan at midday.

March to May: spring into heat

• March: spring proper. Long sleeves in the morning, lighter by afternoon, a thinner sleepsuit at night. Pollen in Islamabad.
• April: warm to hot. Short sleeves by day, long-sleeved thin sleepsuits at night, and a sun hat outdoors. Pack away the heaviest winter pieces.
• May: hot, with dry, hot winds on the plains. A single thin layer indoors, outings early or late. See layering on mild spring days for the in-between weeks.

June to September: heat and monsoon

• June: usually the hottest month before the rains. Vests, short-sleeved rompers such as our Cream & Blue Striped Car Polo Romper, and sometimes just a nappy. Heatwaves are possible.
• July and August: the monsoon. Humid, sticky and rainy, with more changes of clothes, slow-drying laundry and mosquitoes.
• September: still hot and often humid, with the rains tailing off. Dengue season begins; light long sleeves at dusk.

October and November: the changeover

These two months are the easiest to get wrong, because warm days and cool nights sit side by side and the weather can flip back and forth. Change the night-time clothes first and the daytime ones later.

• October: warm days, cooler nights. Short sleeves by day, a long-sleeved sleepsuit at night, a light layer in the evening.
• November: evenings need a cardigan, mornings may be misty, and smog may arrive in Lahore. Check last winter’s clothes still fit; see when to switch to winter clothes.

Adjusting for your city

The guide on dressing a baby for winter in Pakistan and our cluster on seasons in Pakistan go deeper into each stretch of the year.

• Karachi: winter is short and mild, needing only a few warm pieces around December and January; summer is humid for months, not just in the monsoon.
• Hyderabad and interior Sindh: summers are longer and fiercer than Punjab’s, and winter is mild.
• Islamabad and Peshawar: winters are colder and wetter than Lahore’s, and spring lingers a little longer.
• Quetta: cold, dry winters with freezing nights; summers are warm by day and cooler at night.
• Gilgit-Baltistan and Chitral: long, deep winters; summers are warm by day with cold nights, so warm layers stay out all year.

Sources

NHS; The Lullaby Trust.

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