Weather in Cali in October

A hard month. October is a hard month in Cali, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 20 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

October ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Cali's year. August is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 20 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 20 of the month's 31 days, 3 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. Natural fibres and a second shirt for the day. At 84% nothing dries, including you.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 15 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 35.9 °C and the coldest night fell to 17.8 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 75 mm — roughly 60% 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 210 mm against 46 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 126 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 4.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 84%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 31.3 °C in September, 30.1 here, 29.3 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain has already shifted: 9 days more than September had.

Daylight in October

Cali sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12 hours in October, against a range of just 0.4 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: 10.8 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights. At 758 m the air is thin enough to matter — sun that burns faster than the temperature suggests, and nights that cool off quickly.

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 Cali versus nearby

If Cali is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Bogotá is a better bet in October — 11.4 °C cooler, 4 days more rain. Medellín is a better bet in October — 6.2 °C cooler, 7 days more rain.

So: October is a compromise. August is 20 points better and is what Cali 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 Cali

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