Weather in Darwin in October

Shoulder season. October sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. Highs average 33.1 °C, lows 27.4 °C, and rain falls on 13 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

October ranks 10 of 12 — near the bottom of Darwin's year. July is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 46 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 13 days, 1 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 33.1 °C days and 27.4 °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: 31 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 5.6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 36.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 23.2 °C.

October is moderately variable: 12 mm in the driest year against 199 mm in the wettest, around an average of 58 mm. Roughly two Octobers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 11.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 63%.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 32.4 °C in September, 33.1 here, 32.3 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: November brings 11 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in October

Darwin sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.4 hours in October, against a range of just 1.4 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: 11.7 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

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 Darwin versus nearby

If Darwin is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Broome is the weaker option in October — 5.7 °C warmer, 11 days less rain. Labuan Bajo is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: October is a compromise. July is 37 points better and is what Darwin 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 Darwin

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