Weather in Broome in May

A good month. May is a solid month to be in Broome. Highs average 32.8 °C, lows 19.8 °C, and rain falls on 2 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 4 of 12 in Broome: past the worst of the year but short of June, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 2 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Pack for 32.8 °C days and 19.8 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 7 days clear 35 °C, so a serious heatwave is normal rather than notable. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 39.7 °C and the coldest night fell to 11.4 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 44 mm — roughly 210% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. May rainfall has ranged from 0 mm to 117 mm across the twenty years measured — a 117 mm spread around an average of 21 mm. The average is real but almost no individual May looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 10.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 47%.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2 °C cooler than April, with June dropping another 2.3 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in May

May sits at the dark end of Broome's year — 11.3 hours of daylight against 13.2 at midsummer, holding steady all month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.2 °C in May — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 30.2 °C in March and bottoms out at 24.7 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

How busy it gets

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

May in Broome versus nearby

If Broome is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Labuan Bajo is the weaker option in May — 2.8 °C cooler, 12 days more rain. Darwin is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.4 °C cooler, 3 days more rain.

So: May works, with June the better month by 14 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Broome

See all twelve months in Broome, or where else to go in May.