Where Is Warm and Dry in October? Only 9 Places Pass, Because the Rain Comes Back

Which places are warm and dry in October?

Nine of the places we track pass our test in October: an average daytime high of at least 24°C and rain on no more than one day in ten, about three rain days in the month. That is seven fewer than in September: Santorini, Athens, Lombok, Seville, Lisbon, Málaga, Antalya and Paje leave, and only Cape Verde joins.

October is the month the rain comes back. Most roundups treat it as a gentle shoulder month, and in a headline sense that is true, since it is warm nearly everywhere. But "warm" and "warm and dry" are different questions, and on the second one the list shrinks fast. The September list is the month before; the November page is the month after.

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Does the Mediterranean stay dry in October?

Not quite. The heat has gone and the first autumn rain has arrived.

Lisbon goes from about 3 rain days in September to about 7 of 31, and Seville from 15 mm to 74 mm. Málaga is the driest of the three. All three are pleasant to work outdoors in, and none passes the dry line any more. Athens is dry but just under our 24°C line, and Crete just makes it on both. Cyprus is the driest of the Mediterranean places that still pass. The east coast and Rome are wetter: Valencia has about 5 rain days, Barcelona about 8 and Rome about 9.

Does Bali's rain keep climbing in October?

Yes. This continues the staircase from the September page.

Lombok, which stayed on the dry list in September, jumps from 48 mm to 131 mm. Everywhere else on the south coast the rain is higher again, and the days are a little warmer. October is the turn of the season, not the heart of the dry one, and the rain climbs every month from here into December. Our Bali by area guide shows the whole year, and the rainy season guide covers what comes next.

Is Thailand dry yet?

No, and the Gulf coast is the one that turns.

Koh Samui was the light side of Thailand in September. In October its wet season starts, while Phuket on the Andaman side is still deep in it. Chiang Mai is the one place in Thailand clearly easing, from 261 mm in September, while Phuket and Bangkok barely change. Da Nang is the extreme: rain doubles from September, and it is the wettest place we track this month. Our Samui and Phangan guide shows when it dries again.

Which places get drier in October?

Among the places that pass, only Cape Verde clearly does, and it is the mirror image of our August page.

Cape Verde had about 6 rain days in September (94 mm) and about 2 in October (24 mm), so it dries out just as the rest of the list gets wetter. That makes it one of the better October picks for a warm month by the Atlantic: the August page has the other side of the story. Dubai drops from 39°C to 35°C and is still essentially rain-free.

What about the Americas?

Los Angeles and San Diego pass with about 1 rain day each, and so does Maui (29°C, about 3 rain days). Our monthly averages cannot show hurricanes: the Atlantic and central Pacific seasons both run to the end of November, so a low rain-day count in the Caribbean or Hawaii is not a promise of a settled month.

What would we pick for a month in October?

Warm and dry: Cape Verde, or Cyprus if you want the Mediterranean with a real chance of sun.

Hot and settled: Dubai, now 35°C and cooling.

Warm with some rain, still easy: Málaga or Seville, where showers are a few days of the month.

Skip for dry weather: Bali's south coast, Thailand, central Vietnam and the east coast of Spain.

Want sunny rather than dry? Sunniest and cloudiest places for nomads ranks places by cloud cover. Planning more than October, or need to dodge smoke, heat or rain? Pick your months and what to avoid and get your 3 best places, with the numbers.

How we built this list

Each place's October is an average of eleven years of daily Open-Meteo weather at its coordinates. Rain totals come from CHIRPS, except Canggu, Ubud and Paje, where CHIRPS reads too wet against local gauges. A place is listed when its October high averages 24°C or more and no more than one day in ten is a rain day (two millimetres, or four in the tropics). We sort by fewest rain days, then by the warmer high. Prices, crowds, visas, storms and air quality are not in it; see the data sources page.