Spatio-temporal rainfall variation is associated with geographical attributes of dipterocarp forests. However, insufficient number of rain gauge stations and social constraints in acquiring those data has caused drawbacks to examine ecological characteristics of hill dipterocarp forests (> 400m a.s.l.) in Peninsular Malaysia. In the present study, we examined the utility of public domain Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data to map the rainfall patterns on hill dipterocarp. The seasonal rainfall patterns were strongly correlated with local monsoon seasons transition. The east coast area received heaviest amount of rainfall with two local scale rainfall patterns. The first pattern occurred during the northwest monsoon (Nov.-Dec.)was mainly concentrated on the upper part of the mountainous forest directly facing the east coast. The second pattern (May-Aug.) affected the lower part of the east coast, and then was shifted to the northwest during September and subsequently towards the southwest in the latter months (Jan.-April). Correlation between TRMM estimation and actual rain gauge was high (R = 0.738) and average error of 71 mm/month. The satellite rainfall patterns would instigate finer scale spatio-temporal analyses on hilly dipterocarp forest ecology.