Best time to visit Cairns

Cairns is a city of two halves. August scores 90 and December scores 41 — a 49-point swing, which is the difference between a holiday and an endurance test. The month you pick matters more here than almost anywhere. The good window runs June to September — 4 months within ten points of the best.

December is the warmest month at 32.6 °C and July the coolest at 25.3 °C — a 7.3 °C spread across the year. 130 days a year top 30 °C, more than a third of the calendar, so heat is the baseline here rather than a season.

There is a real wet season here. January to March carry the rain — up to 24 wet days in a month — while July to October drop as low as 6. That 18-day gap is the biggest single difference between a good month and a bad one in Cairns, and it moves further than the temperature does.

The sea never drops below 24.7 °C, so swimming is on the table year round. Daylight runs from 11.1 hours in winter to 13.1 in summer, enough to notice on a sightseeing itinerary.

The three strongest months are August, July, June. The one to think twice about is December. Each month below has its own page with rainfall reliability, extremes, daylight, sea temperature and crowd levels.

Cairns month by month