Does it snow in Sapa? Yes, but rarely in the town itself: in the reports compiled below, snow reached Sa Pa town in March 2011, December 2013, February 2014, January 2016 and January 2018, while every fall reported since then was on the Fansipan summit or other high ground at about 2,000 m or higher. Every reported fall came between December 9 and March 16, and on January 24, 2016, Lào Cai’s forecast center put Sa Pa at minus 4.2°C (24°F), the figure Vietnam’s building code lists as the station’s record low.
Sa Pa, often written Sapa, is a mountain town in Lào Cai province in Vietnam’s northwest, where winter frost is routine and snow is not.
Snow in Sa Pa town vs the Fansipan summit
Vietnam’s building code lists the Sa Pa weather station at 1,570 m (5,151 ft), and the Vietnam News Agency puts the town at 1,600 m. Fansipan (Phan Xi Păng), the country’s highest peak, was long given as 3,143 m from a French survey in 1909. In June 2019 Vietnam’s Department of Survey, Mapping and Geographic Information announced a satellite-based height of 3,147.3 m (10,326 ft), though the reports cited here still use 3,143 m.
The deputy director of Lào Cai’s provincial weather station told Thanh Niên in 2024 that air cools about 0.6°C for every 100 m of height, a rule that puts the summit roughly 9°C colder than the Sa Pa station. On January 26, 2025, a local tourism worker told VnExpress the summit was about minus 3°C that morning; snow began in the afternoon with the summit near 0°C, while central Sa Pa was 3 to 4°C.
Vietnam’s building code says the country gets no snow except once or twice a year on a few high northern mountains. Báo Lào Cai, the provincial newspaper, wrote in 2023 that frost and ice form in Sa Pa every winter but that a severe frost episode with snow comes about once every 8 to 10 years on average, though the reports below show snow in town five times from 2011 to 2018.
Sapa weather in winter: month-by-month climate table
These are the Sa Pa station’s values in Vietnam’s building code, QCVN 02:2022/BXD, issued by the Ministry of Construction in September 2022. The code says its climate data came from the Vietnam Institute of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change, and the institute that drafted the code says the data run through 2017; the code gives no start year. Tuổi Trẻ News reported in 2024 that the national meteorology institute credits Sa Pa with minus 6.1°C (21°F) on January 4, 1974, lower than any value in the code’s table. Fahrenheit and inch values are conversions, rounded.
| Month | Average | Average high | Average low | Record low | Rainfall | Rainy days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8.6°C (47°F) | 12.3°C (54°F) | 6.2°C (43°F) | -4.2°C (24°F) | 70.2 mm (2.8 in) | 16.3 |
| February | 10.4°C (51°F) | 14.3°C (58°F) | 7.8°C (46°F) | -1.0°C (30°F) | 73.5 mm (2.9 in) | 16.3 |
| March | 13.9°C (57°F) | 18.2°C (65°F) | 10.8°C (51°F) | -3.5°C (26°F) | 104.5 mm (4.1 in) | 15.7 |
| April | 17.1°C (63°F) | 21.3°C (70°F) | 14.0°C (57°F) | 3.4°C (38°F) | 213.3 mm (8.4 in) | 17.9 |
| May | 18.9°C (66°F) | 22.4°C (72°F) | 16.3°C (61°F) | 8.3°C (47°F) | 340.6 mm (13.4 in) | 22.2 |
| June | 19.8°C (68°F) | 22.9°C (73°F) | 17.6°C (64°F) | 10.8°C (51°F) | 381.4 mm (15.0 in) | 24.4 |
| July | 19.8°C (68°F) | 23.0°C (73°F) | 17.7°C (64°F) | 12.2°C (54°F) | 461.0 mm (18.1 in) | 25.6 |
| August | 19.5°C (67°F) | 23.0°C (73°F) | 17.4°C (63°F) | 13.8°C (57°F) | 451.9 mm (17.8 in) | 23.4 |
| September | 18.2°C (65°F) | 21.7°C (71°F) | 15.9°C (61°F) | 8.7°C (48°F) | 303.1 mm (11.9 in) | 19.8 |
| October | 15.7°C (60°F) | 19.0°C (66°F) | 13.7°C (57°F) | 5.6°C (42°F) | 201.3 mm (7.9 in) | 18.6 |
| November | 12.5°C (55°F) | 16.1°C (61°F) | 10.2°C (50°F) | 1.5°C (35°F) | 106.3 mm (4.2 in) | 13.8 |
| December | 9.4°C (49°F) | 13.2°C (56°F) | 7.0°C (45°F) | -3.2°C (26°F) | 65.7 mm (2.6 in) | 13.5 |
Only December to March have record lows below freezing. Winter has the year’s lowest rainfall totals, yet the station averages about 14 to 16 rainy days a month from November to March, and in January 14 days with drizzle and 17 with fog.
Sapa weather in December
December averages 9.4°C (49°F), with highs near 13°C and lows near 7°C. In the list below, snow was reported in December in 2013, 2017, 2021, 2022 and 2025, and reached the town only in 2013.
Sapa weather in January
January is the coldest month, averaging 8.6°C (47°F) with lows near 6°C. It has the most snow reports in the list below: six, against five for December. VnExpress’s March 2011 report also mentions an earlier light, brief fall in Sa Pa in January 2003.
Reported snow and ice in Sa Pa and on Fansipan, 2011 to 2026
Compiled from Vietnamese newspapers, the list records reported events, not every event: VnExpress noted, for example, that a December 2017 fall on Fansipan came overnight and few people knew about it. Y Tý is a commune at about 2,000 m in the former Bát Xát district, outside Sa Pa; Trạm Tôn is the pass where the Fansipan trek starts.
| Date | Where | What was reported | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 16, 2011 | Sa Pa town; Y Tý | Snow mixed with light rain, about 5 am to 11 am; 0°C in town; up to 15 cm at Y Tý | VnExpress, March 16, 2011 |
| December 15 to 16, 2013 | Sa Pa town; Ô Quy Hồ pass | Heavy snow; orchid greenhouse roofs collapsed in town; 5 to 30 cm on the pass road | Giáo Dục Việt Nam (citing VnExpress), December 17, 2013; VietNamNet, December 18, 2013 |
| February 19, 2014 | Sa Pa town; Ô Quy Hồ; Y Tý | Light snow for about 40 minutes in town; 5 to 7 cm on the pass | Thanh Niên, February 19, 2014 |
| January 9 to 10, 2015 | Ô Quy Hồ, Trạm Tôn, Y Tý | Snow above 2,000 m for 30 to 60 minutes; none in town, just over 3°C | VnExpress, January 10, 2015 |
| January 24, 2016 | Sa Pa town | Snow from 12:40 am at the weather station, 5 to 10 cm; ice pellets also reported | VietNamNet and VnExpress, January 24, 2016 |
| December 9, 2017 | Fansipan | Snow overnight | VnExpress, January 12, 2018 |
| January 12, 2018 | Fansipan above 3,000 m | Three brief flurries; ice elsewhere | VnExpress, January 12, 2018 |
| January 31, 2018 | Fansipan; Ô Quy Hồ; Sa Pa town | Snow on the summit from 8 am and on the pass by 8:30 am, then in town, still falling at 1:15 pm; about 1°C in town | VietNamNet, January 31, 2018; Tuổi Trẻ News, February 1, 2018 |
| February 3, 2018 | Ô Quy Hồ pass | Ice on trees and grass at 7 am | VietNamNet, February 3, 2018 |
| February 18, 2019 | Fansipan | Snow on the summit from about 8:30 am | Thanh Tra, February 18, 2019; People’s Public Security News, February 20, 2019 |
| January 10 to 11, 2021 | Ô Quy Hồ; Y Tý | Overnight snow, 1 to 3 cm on the pass, 7 to 10 cm at Y Tý | VnExpress, January 11, 2021 |
| February 8 to 9, 2021 | Fansipan | Snow from 8 am on February 8; over 30 cm in places by February 9 | VnExpress, February 9, 2021 |
| December 26, 2021 | Fansipan | Light snow with rain for 5 to 7 minutes | VnExpress, December 26, 2021 |
| December 28, 2022 | Fansipan from 2,800 m | About 2 cm, from around 5 am to 8:40 am | VnExpress, December 28, 2022 |
| November 23, 2024 | Fansipan | Shared online as ice; the provincial weather station called it hoar frost | Thanh Niên, November 23, 2024 |
| January 26, 2025 | Fansipan from 2,900 m; Ô Quy Hồ; Y Tý | About three hours of heavy snow on the summit, the first there since December 2022 | VnExpress, January 26 and 27, 2025 |
| December 18, 2025 | Fansipan | Light snow for about five minutes at 1 to 2°C | VnExpress, December 18, 2025 |
| January 7, 2026 | Fansipan | Minus 3°C and thick frost, not snow | Tuổi Trẻ News, January 7, 2026 |
Snow, ice, frost or rime? Reading Vietnamese reports
Vietnamese reports use several words for a white mountain. Tuyết is snow. Mưa tuyết, literally “snow rain”, is used for falling snow, including wet, rain-mixed falls. Báo Lào Cai defines băng giá (ice) as a thin skin of ice that forms on puddles and outdoor water on a freezing night, and sương muối, literally “salt dew”, as tiny ice crystals that settle on roofs, branches and grass like table salt: hoar frost. The Hong Kong Observatory adds rime, which builds up when supercooled fog droplets freeze onto objects below 0°C; cloud and strong wind favor rime, while frost forms on clear, calm nights.
Is snow in Sa Pa becoming rarer?
For heavy snow that lasts, a state climate scientist says yes. Trương Bá Kiên of Vietnam’s state meteorology institute, quoted by Sức Khỏe & Đời Sống in February 2026, said Sa Pa’s lowest temperature of each year has risen about 0.2°C per decade since 1961, three to four times faster in the last 10 to 15 years, leaving fewer chances of heavy, lasting snow and ice. Brief summit snow still appears most winters: seven of the nine from 2017 to 2018 through 2025 to 2026 in the list above. Meteorologist Lê Thị Xuân Lan told VTC News that Sa Pa snow tends to come in fairly strong La Niña years. The seasonal outlook from Vietnam’s National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting (NCHMF) for November 2026 to April 2027 leans the other way. It expects a very strong El Niño through January 2027, December and January 0.5 to 1.5°C warmer than average and fewer cold days in the north, arriving later than usual, though short, sharp cold snaps remain possible.
How to watch for Fansipan snow before and during a trip
NCHMF posts its warnings in Vietnamese at nchmf.gov.vn. Its February 9, 2026 bulletin on the northeast monsoon and cold, for example, gave minimum temperatures for the northern mountains and warned the high mountains to watch for ice and snow. Useful terms: không khí lạnh (cold air), gió mùa đông bắc (northeast monsoon), rét đậm (a daily mean of 15°C or lower), rét hại (13°C or lower), băng giá and mưa tuyết. An average Sa Pa January day already meets rét hại, so for snow, watch the high-mountain warnings for băng giá and mưa tuyết.
Snow on Fansipan has lasted from a few minutes (January 12, 2018 and December 18, 2025) to more than a day (February 2021), so timing matters. A Hanoi traveler who had seen snow in Sa Pa four times told Dân trí in 2022 to follow reliable news outlets, call local contacts and leave at once when snow is confirmed. The paper also warned that 2021 photos of snow on Fansipan were being reposted without dates to sell tours.
What can close in a cold snap
Ô Quy Hồ (also written Ô Quý Hồ), the pass on National Highway 4D on the Lào Cai and Lai Châu border, has closed more than once. In December 2013 the two provinces’ transport departments closed the highway over the pass, and it reopened by 4:30 pm on December 17 after crews cleared snow and ice. A VietNamNet report on February 3, 2018 said traffic police had blocked the pass at 11 am because the road was too slippery. In January 2021 Lào Cai temporarily barred trucks from part of Highway 4D and told Sa Pa to advise visitors not to drive their own vehicles up to Ô Quy Hồ and Trạm Tôn.
The Fansipan cable car is run by Sun World Fansipan Legend. On December 28, 2022, a staff member there said the summit was opening to visitors after snow stopped at 8:40 am. It also shuts for scheduled maintenance, which Báo Lào Cai reported from November 24 to December 15, 2025. Check with the operator for current hours and closures before planning a summit day.
What to pack and how to stay safe
The traveler quoted by Dân trí recommends several thin layers, heat patches and a thick waterproof jacket, with high boots, a hat, scarf and gloves, plus a power bank because cold drains batteries. Wet clothing is a real risk: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says a person soaked by rain or sweat can become hypothermic at air temperatures above 40°F (about 4°C). Shivering, exhaustion and confusion are among the signs it lists. Never sleep with a charcoal brazier in a closed room: the CDC says never to burn charcoal indoors, and SGGP reported that Bạch Mai Hospital’s poison center regularly treats carbon monoxide cases from indoor charcoal and wood heating in northern cold spells.
Getting to Sa Pa from Hanoi
For the Hanoi end of the trip, see things to do in Hanoi. A 2024 VnExpress International guide lists a daily overnight train from Hanoi to Lào Cai, leaving at 10 pm and arriving at 6 am, a 3.5 to 4 hour drive from Hanoi to Lào Cai on the expressway, and shuttle cars from Lào Cai station up to Sa Pa. The Vietnam News Agency puts Sa Pa 33 km (about 20 miles) from Lào Cai city. Check current timetables before booking.
Frequently asked questions
Does Sapa, Vietnam have snow every year?
No. Frost and ice come every winter, but Báo Lào Cai puts a severe frost episode with snow at about once every 8 to 10 years. Brief snow on the Fansipan summit is more frequent, though VnExpress reported none there between December 2022 and January 2025.
When does Sapa snow?
Every fall in the list above came between December 9 and March 16, and December and January have the most reports. Snow has followed strong cold-air outbreaks and often lasts minutes to hours, so watch NCHMF bulletins and be ready to move quickly.
Does Fansipan have snow?
Yes, more often than the town. Recent falls covered the summit from about 2,800 to 2,900 m upward.
What is the best month to visit Vietnam with snow?
No month guarantees it. Vietnam’s building code says snow is limited to a few high northern mountains, and in the Sa Pa list above December and January have the most reports, mostly on Fansipan.
Sources
- Ministry of Construction of Vietnam, QCVN 02:2022/BXD, National Technical Regulation on Natural Physical and Climatic Data for Construction, September 26, 2022
- Vietnam Institute for Building Science and Technology, Thuyết minh dự thảo Sửa đổi 01:202X QCVN 02:2022/BXD, 2026
- VietnamPlus (Vietnam News Agency), Fansipan peak found to be 4m higher than old measurement, June 26, 2019
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi bất thường ở Sapa, March 16, 2011
- Giáo Dục Việt Nam, Sapa thiệt hại lớn vì mưa tuyết, December 17, 2013
- VietNamNet, Lần đầu phá băng thông đèo Ô Quý Hồ, December 18, 2013
- Thanh Niên, Sa Pa lại có tuyết rơi, February 19, 2014
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi ở Sa Pa, January 10, 2015
- VietNamNet, Rét -2 độ, Sa Pa ngập tràn băng tuyết dày 10cm, January 24, 2016
- VnExpress, Sa Pa trong tuyết rơi âm 3 độ C, January 24, 2016
- VTC News, Chuyên gia thời tiết: Giá rét khủng khiếp 2 ngày nữa mới giảm, January 25, 2016
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi ở đỉnh Fansipan, January 12, 2018
- VietNamNet, Sa Pa tuyết rơi dày đặc như châu Âu, January 31, 2018
- Tuổi Trẻ News, Snow blankets Vietnam’s Sa Pa (photos), February 1, 2018
- VietNamNet, Băng tuyết phủ trắng đỉnh đèo Ô Quý Hồ, February 3, 2018
- Thanh Tra, Tuyết bất ngờ rơi trắng trời trên đỉnh núi Fansipan ở Lào Cai, February 18, 2019
- People’s Public Security News, Beautiful snowfall on the Fansipan Peak, February 20, 2019
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi dày ở vùng núi phía Bắc, January 11, 2021
- Tuổi Trẻ, Nghiên cứu ban hành quy định tổ chức giao thông khi có băng tuyết, January 11, 2021
- VnExpress, Tuyết phủ trắng Fansipan, February 9, 2021
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi trên đỉnh Fansipan, December 26, 2021
- VnExpress, Mưa tuyết phủ trắng đỉnh Fansipan, December 28, 2022
- Dân trí, Bí kíp “săn tuyết” ở Sa Pa của du khách 4 lần ngắm tuyết thành công, December 29, 2022
- Báo Lào Cai, Băng giá và sương muối: Một hiện tượng cực đoan nguy hiểm, November 30, 2023
- Tuổi Trẻ News, The 2 Vietnamese localities duking it out for the Vietnam’s Coldest Place title, January 19, 2024
- Thanh Niên, Fansipan lần đầu xuất hiện sương muối trong mùa đông 2024, November 23, 2024
- VnExpress, Fansipan và Ô Quy Hồ xuất hiện tuyết, January 26, 2025
- VnExpress, Du khách thích thú khi thấy tuyết rơi dày ở Sa Pa, January 27, 2025
- Báo Lào Cai, Băng giá phủ trắng Fansipan, November 23, 2025
- VnExpress, Tuyết rơi nhẹ trên đỉnh Fansipan, December 18, 2025
- VTC News, Tuyết Sa Pa dần biến mất trong vòng xoáy biến đổi khí hậu, January 5, 2026
- Tuổi Trẻ News, Fansipan plunges to -3°C as frost blankets Vietnam’s highest peak, January 7, 2026
- Sức Khỏe & Đời Sống, Vì sao Sa Pa ngày càng hiếm tuyết rơi?, February 7, 2026
- National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, Tin gió mùa Đông Bắc và rét, February 9, 2026
- National Center for Hydro-Meteorological Forecasting, Bản tin dự báo, cảnh báo khí hậu thời hạn mùa trên phạm vi toàn quốc (từ tháng 11/2026-4/2027), accessed November 1, 2026
- Tạp chí Khí tượng Thủy văn, Sự biến đổi của số đợt rét đậm, rét hại xảy ra trên vùng Đồng Bằng Bắc Bộ trong thời kỳ 1981-2020, August 25, 2022
- Hong Kong Observatory, A rare spectacular sight of rime in Hong Kong, accessed November 1, 2026
- CDC, Preventing Hypothermia, reviewed August 25, 2026
- CDC, Carbon Monoxide (CO) Poisoning Basics, reviewed October 26, 2026
- Sài Gòn Giải Phóng, Đốt than sưởi ấm: Thói quen nguy hiểm, February 15, 2022
- VnExpress International, Market mayhem & cultural mosaic: unveiling Lao Cai, June 16, 2024
Featured image: The Fansipan summit complex above a sea of clouds, Sa Pa, Lào Cai province. Photo: Vivu Vietnam, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).
