Weather in Hobart in August

Shoulder season. August is shoulder season in Hobart — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 12.3 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

August ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Hobart's year. January is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 34 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

This is persistent light rain rather than storms: 14 wet days but only 1 heavy ones. It rarely cancels anything outright, and it rarely fully clears either. A jacket beats an umbrella. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 12.3 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest August day reached 18.8 °C and the coldest night fell to 1.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 59 mm — roughly 79% of the month's rain in one day.

August is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest August on record still delivered 135 mm against 26 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 75 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 15.3 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 83%, which at 12.3 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How August sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 11.9 °C in July, 12.3 here, 14 in September. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in August

10.3 hours of daylight, gaining 1.2 hours across the month. That is between Hobart's extremes of 15.3 and 9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 12.4 °C in August — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 16.6 °C in February and bottoms out at 12.4 °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

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.

August in Hobart versus nearby

If Hobart is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Launceston is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain. Devonport is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days more rain.

So: August is a compromise. January is 34 points better and is what Hobart 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 Hobart

See all twelve months in Hobart, or where else to go in August.