Weather in Key West in October

A good month. October is a solid month to be in Key West. You should expect rain on 16 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

October ranks 8 of 12 in Key West: past the worst of the year but short of January, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 16 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 28.1 °C days and 27.1 °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: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average October reaches 30 °C; the day barely swings — 1 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 30.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 19.5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 82 mm — roughly 71% of the month's rain in one day.

October is moderately variable: 10 mm in the driest year against 267 mm in the wettest, around an average of 116 mm. Roughly two Octobers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind sits around 18.7 km/h — a steady breeze rather than a nuisance, and welcome on the warmer days, and humidity runs at 77%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 29.4 °C in September, 28.1 here, 25.6 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: November brings 8 days less of it, so pushing the dates later buys drier weather.

Daylight in October

11.6 hours of daylight, losing 0.7 hours across the month. That is between Key West's extremes of 13.6 and 10.6 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 28.6 °C in October — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.9 °C in August and bottoms out at 24.9 °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

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

October in Key West versus nearby

If Key West is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Miami is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Cape Coral is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: October is a compromise. January is 27 points better and is what Key West 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 Key West

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