Weather in Seattle in October

Shoulder season. October sits in between. You will get good days and you will lose some. You should expect rain on 15 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

October ranks 6 of 12 in Seattle: past the worst of the year but short of July, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 15 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 15.5 °C days and 7.7 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 26.6 °C and the coldest night fell to -1.9 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 71 mm — roughly 57% of the month's rain in one day.

October is moderately variable: 21 mm in the driest year against 299 mm in the wettest, around an average of 125 mm. Roughly two Octobers in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 2.7 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

The month is on the way down: 5.5 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 5.1 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip. Rain has already shifted: 5 days more than September had.

Daylight in October

11 hours of daylight, losing 1.7 hours across the month. That is between Seattle's extremes of 16 and 8.5 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Despite being inland, the year stays fairly even: 21.9 °C between the year's warmest afternoons and coldest nights.

How busy it gets

Shoulder. The value months — prices ease off and you get the place closer to itself.

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

October in Seattle versus nearby

If Seattle is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Maple Ridge is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain. Vancouver is the weaker option in October — within a degree on temperature, 3 days more rain.

So: October is a compromise. July is 38 points better and is what Seattle 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 Seattle

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