Weather in Bogotá in October

Shoulder season. October is shoulder season in Bogotá — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. You should expect rain on 24 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

October ranks 8 of 12 in Bogotá: past the worst of the year but short of January, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 24 of the month's 31 days, 6 of them heavy. At that frequency a wet-weather backup is not a contingency, it is the itinerary — book the indoor things first and treat the clear days as the bonus. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average October reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 24.1 °C and the coldest night fell to 6 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 59 mm — roughly 32% of the month's rain in one day.

October is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest October on record still delivered 335 mm against 61 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 186 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 3.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 79%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 19.7 °C in September, 18.7 here, 17.9 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 6 days more than September had.

Daylight in October

Bogotá sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12 hours in October, against a range of just 0.5 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 11.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 2582 m, altitude is doing as much work here as latitude: thinner air means fierce sun by day and heat that leaves the moment it sets.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

October in Bogotá versus nearby

If Bogotá is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Medellín is close enough to be a coin toss — 5.2 °C warmer, 3 days more rain. Cali is the weaker option in October — 11.4 °C warmer, 4 days less rain.

So: October is a compromise. January is 20 points better and is what Bogotá is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Bogotá

See all twelve months in Bogotá, or where else to go in October.