Weather in Makassar in October

Shoulder season. October is shoulder season in Makassar — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs average 32.5 °C, lows 26.5 °C, and rain falls on 10 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

October ranks 5 of 12 in Makassar: past the worst of the year but short of August, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 10 days, 2 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 32.5 °C days and 26.5 °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: 29 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional; the day barely swings — 6 °C between the overnight low and the afternoon high. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 34.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 24.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 48 mm — roughly 75% of the month's rain in one day.

This is the volatile part. October rainfall has ranged from 0 mm to 292 mm across the twenty years measured — a 292 mm spread around an average of 64 mm. The average is real but almost no individual October looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.

Wind is light at 8.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 69%.

How October sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 32.1 °C in September, 32.5 here, 31.4 in November. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much. Rain is the thing that moves: November brings 12 days more of it, so the earlier half of a flexible trip is the safer half.

Daylight in October

Makassar sits close enough to the equator that daylight barely moves all year — 12.2 hours in October, against a range of just 0.6 hours across the whole calendar. Sunrise and sunset land at roughly the same time whenever you come.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 29.1 °C in October — warm enough that the water offers no relief from the heat. The sea peaks at 29.9 °C in April and bottoms out at 28 °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 Makassar versus nearby

If Makassar is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Labuan Bajo is the weaker option in October — within a degree on temperature, 5 days more rain. Denpasar is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain.

So: October is a compromise. August is 22 points better and is what Makassar 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 Makassar

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