Cairns Weather by Month: When Is It Dry Enough to Work Outside?

When is the dry season in Cairns?

June to October. Here is the year:

Averages 2015-2025 · Source: Open-Meteo, CHIRPS · How we measure

Rain stays at 57 mm or less a month from June to October, with August the driest at 30 mm and rain on about 3 of 31 days. May (124 mm) and November (70 mm) are the edges. In our data November is the drier of the two; the long-term airport record has them about equal. Read both as shoulder months: mostly fine, with more showers than August. If you want to work with the doors open, June to October is the safe window.

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What happens in December?

The rain switches on. November has 70 mm; December has 361 mm, with rain on about 9 of 31 days (up from about 4 of 30). The airport record shows a smaller jump in December and a bigger one in January, so treat December as the start of the wet season rather than its peak. January then reaches 500 mm and rain on about 15 of 31 days, and February and March stay between 401 and 463 mm.

If you are booking a month in "summer", the question is not whether it will rain but how many hours of cloud you can work under: cloud cover is 76 percent in January against 45 percent in August. April is the first month the pressure eases (239 mm, about 7 rainy days), and May falls to 124 mm. If you arrive in April hoping for dry weather you will still get wet days; May is the safer start.

Is Cairns too hot or too cool?

Neither, but there is a real difference between seasons. In the wet months the high is 29° to 30° and the night stays at 25°, a sticky combination. In July the high is 24° and the low 20°: sunny, light-shirt weather with cool evenings. The most comfortable months for heat and rain together are June to October, with highs of 24° to 28°. The airport station reads 2 to 3 degrees warmer by day than our point, so if you run warm, add that.

What does a working week look like in each season?

In the dry months you can plan outdoor time without checking the sky. Cloud covers under half the sky on a typical August day, and the rain that does fall is small by wet-season standards. September and October are almost the same (47 and 53 mm), with highs rising from 26° to 28°. November is a shoulder month, with a 29° high and 24° nights.

In the wet months you plan around the rain rather than for it: mornings for anything outside, afternoons indoors. Humidity and warm nights make air conditioning part of the rent decision.

Two things first-time visitors get wrong. They read "dry season" as "no rain": even in August a proper rain day comes about one day in ten, and the total is small but not zero. And they treat December as a safe holiday month because it is summer: it is the month the rain arrives. If you can move a trip from December to November, you get a big drop in rain at almost no loss in warmth.

Where should I go instead in the wet months?

If you are in Australia and need dry weather from December to March, the options are limited. The Gold Coast is also wet in those months but with less rain than Cairns and cooler nights. For a dry warm winter outside Australia, Ho Chi Minh City is the clear contrast. In January:

See where is warm in December for the full ranking.

What would we do?

• Want dry, sunny and not too hot: June to September in Cairns.
• Happy to work indoors: December to March are wet and heavy; fine if you accept skies that are mostly cloud.
• Not sure: pick August or September; the data is the most stable there.