Weather in Byron Bay in May

Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, May is the one. Highs average 22.1 °C, lows 19.5 °C, and rain falls on 11 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

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

Rain on 11 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. 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 May reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 2.6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 26.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 13.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 91 mm — roughly 117% of the month's rain in one day.

May is moderately variable: 16 mm in the driest year against 277 mm in the wettest, around an average of 78 mm. Roughly two Mays in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 17.9 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity is unremarkable at 71%.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way down: 2 °C cooler than April, with June dropping another 1.7 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.

Daylight in May

May sits at the dark end of Byron Bay's year — 10.7 hours of daylight against 13.9 at midsummer, losing 0.6 hours across the month. Sightseeing days are genuinely shorter, and an itinerary built for summer will not fit.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 24.2 °C in May — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. The sea peaks at 26.5 °C in February and bottoms out at 21.5 °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

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself. May is the value pick for Byron Bay: it scores within 8 points of August without carrying August's prices.

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

May in Byron Bay versus nearby

If Byron Bay is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Brisbane is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Coffs Harbour is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.

So: May works, with August the better month by 8 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Byron Bay

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