Will it rain tomorrow in Cairns?

rain likely. Rain: 8.1 mm. Low 21 °C, High 26 °C.

What will the weather be like at the weekend in Cairns?

Sat 17/10: heavy rain showers, 21 °C / 26 °C, rain likely. Sun 18/10: rain showers, 21 °C / 28 °C, rain possible.

How far ahead does this Cairns forecast go?

This page shows 7 days. The model run used here is from 16/10/2026, 01:18 UTC, and the page fetches a new one every 30 minutes.

Cairns weather

Temperature, rain and wind in Cairns (Queensland, Australia), a city of about 153,075 people: how it is right now, hour by hour into tomorrow, the next 7 days and what each month of the year is like.

Right now

Friday 16 October, 12:00 (Australia/Brisbane)

28 °C

Rain showers

Feels like

28 °C

Humidity

63%

Wind

21 km/h

E · Beaufort 4

Dew point

21 °C

Cloud cover

36%

Pressure

1,017 hPa

Hour by hour

Next 24 hours, in the city’s local time.

Time	Conditions	Temperature	Rain	Wind
11:00	Rain showers	28 °C	0.3 mm	19 km/h
12:00	Rain showers	28 °C	0.3 mm	21 km/h
13:00	Light rain showers	28 °C	0.2 mm	21 km/h
14:00	Light rain showers	28 °C	0.1 mm	21 km/h
15:00	Light rain showers	28 °C	0.1 mm	21 km/h
16:00	Light rain	27 °C	0.1 mm	20 km/h
17:00	Partly cloudy	26 °C	0.0 mm	18 km/h
18:00	Fair	24 °C	0.0 mm	16 km/h
19:00	Fair	24 °C	0.0 mm	15 km/h
20:00	Fair	23 °C	0.0 mm	15 km/h
21:00	Fair	22 °C	0.0 mm	15 km/h
22:00	Fair	22 °C	0.0 mm	15 km/h
23:00	Fair	22 °C	0.0 mm	16 km/h
00:00	Partly cloudy	22 °C	0.0 mm	15 km/h
01:00	Fair	21 °C	0.0 mm	16 km/h
02:00	Partly cloudy	21 °C	0.0 mm	17 km/h
03:00	Fair	21 °C	0.0 mm	18 km/h
04:00	Fair	21 °C	0.0 mm	19 km/h
05:00	Partly cloudy	21 °C	0.0 mm	19 km/h
06:00	Cloudy	22 °C	0.0 mm	19 km/h
07:00	Light rain	23 °C	0.1 mm	18 km/h
08:00	Rain	24 °C	0.3 mm	21 km/h
09:00	Rain showers	25 °C	0.7 mm	21 km/h
10:00	Rain showers	26 °C	0.7 mm	24 km/h

Next 7 days

Day	Conditions	Low	High	Rain outlook
Fri 16/10	Rain showers	21 °C	28 °C	rain possible · 1.1 mm
Sat 17/10	Heavy rain showers	21 °C	26 °C	rain likely · 8.1 mm
Sun 18/10	Rain showers	21 °C	28 °C	rain possible · 6.0 mm
Tue 20/10	Fair	21 °C	27 °C	rain possible · 3.5 mm
Wed 21/10	Partly cloudy	21 °C	28 °C	rain likely · 5.9 mm
Thu 22/10	Fair	21 °C	28 °C	rain possible · 2.5 mm
Fri 23/10	Partly cloudy	21 °C	29 °C	rain possible · 1.4 mm

This column is our own reading: the global model does not publish a probability of precipitation for this region, so we classify the day from the forecast symbol and the total in millimetres. It is not an official probability figure.

Our own chart, drawn from the 7-day forecast for Cairns shown above.

What each number means

Rain (mm): 1 millimetre of rain is 1 litre of water per square metre. Up to 2 mm in a day is drizzle; from 10 mm it is proper rain; more than 50 mm in a few hours is the amount that floods streets.
Humidity: Relative humidity is how much water vapour the air holds compared with the most it can hold at that temperature. Above 80% sweat evaporates slowly and heat feels worse; below 30% your throat and eyes dry out.
Dew point: The dew point is the temperature at which the air would start to condense. The closer it is to the air temperature, the muggier it feels. Above 20 °C the air already feels heavy.
Feels like: "Feels like" combines temperature, wind and humidity: strong wind carries heat away from the body, so it feels colder than the thermometer; high humidity in the heat makes it feel warmer.
Wind: Wind is given as a speed and the direction it blows from. Up to 20 km/h you barely notice it; at 40 km/h it moves branches and parasols; above 60 km/h it brings down trees and roof tiles.
Cloud cover: Cloud cover as a percentage is how much of the sky is covered. Up to 20% is a clear sky; above 80% the sun barely gets through.
Chance of rain: The model does not publish a probability of precipitation for this region. This column is our own reading: the global model does not publish a probability of precipitation for this region, so we classify the day from the forecast symbol and the total in millimetres. It is not an official probability figure.

Month-by-month climate

In October, Cairns averages 23 °C and about 62 mm of rain over the month, on the 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025) climatology.

Warmest month

December

Coldest month

July

Wettest month

February

Driest month

August

Month	Mean temperature	Rain	Mean humidity
January	25 °C	352 mm	85%
February	25 °C	392 mm	88%
March	24 °C	392 mm	88%
April	22 °C	191 mm	87%
May	21 °C	103 mm	85%
June	19 °C	63 mm	84%
July	19 °C	53 mm	81%
August	19 °C	31 mm	77%
September	21 °C	31 mm	74%
October	23 °C	62 mm	73%
November	24 °C	86 mm	74%
December	25 °C	179 mm	77%

Our own chart, from the NASA POWER 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025) climatology for the coordinates of Cairns.

Frequently asked questions

Will it rain tomorrow in Cairns?: rain likely. Rain: 8.1 mm. Low 21 °C, High 26 °C.
What is the temperature in Cairns right now?: 28 °C, rain showers. Feels like: 28 °C. Humidity: 63%.
What will the weather be like at the weekend in Cairns?: Sat 17/10: heavy rain showers, 21 °C / 26 °C, rain likely. Sun 18/10: rain showers, 21 °C / 28 °C, rain possible.
Which is the wettest month in Cairns?: February — ~392 mm (25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025), NASA POWER).
How far ahead does this Cairns forecast go?: This page shows 7 days. The model run used here is from 16/10/2026, 01:18 UTC, and the page fetches a new one every 30 minutes.

Nearby cities

Forecasts for places near Cairns:

How to read this page

How to read the min and the max

The week’s high (29 °C) arrives in the afternoon, about two hours after solar noon; the low (21 °C) just before sunrise. Both are air temperature in the shade, two metres above ground — in direct sun or over asphalt a thermometer reads higher.

Where this number comes from

The Cairns forecast comes from MET Norway, a partir do ECMWF HRES e, na área nórdica, do MEPS, run of 16/10/2026, 01:18 UTC. The month-by-month climate comes from NASA POWER, climatology of 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025). Both are credited in full at the foot of this page.

What a forecast cannot promise

Out to two days accuracy is high; by day seven the trend matters more than the exact figure. For Cairns the model publishes no rain probability, so the expectation column is our reading.

Severe weather warnings

This page is informational. For official warnings of storms, gales or flooding affecting Cairns, go to your national weather service through the World Meteorological Organization warning portal.

WMO Severe Weather Information Centre

Understanding the weather and climate of Cairns

Is this week in Cairns above or below the October normal?

The average of the next 7 days in Cairns works out at 24 °C, against a normal of 23 °C for October over 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025). That is 1 °C above typical — a small gap, the size the atmosphere wanders from one week to the next.

Within the week the highest maximum lands on Fri 23/10 (29 °C) and the lowest minimum on Tue 20/10 (21 °C). Forecast rain adds up to 29 mm, roughly 46% of everything Cairns gets in an average October (62 mm). The wettest day is Sat 17/10, with 8.1 mm.

When is the wettest and the driest month in Cairns?

On the 25-year Meteorological and Solar Monthly & Annual Climatologies (January 2001 - December 2025) climatology, the wettest month in Cairns is February, at about 392 mm, and the driest is August, at 31 mm. The gap is 13 times: Cairns has a clearly separated wet season and dry season, so planning building work, travel or planting around the calendar genuinely pays. For October, the month you are reading this in, the average is 62 mm.

What does the dew point say about how Cairns feels?

Right now in Cairns the air is at 28 °C with a dew point of 21 °C and relative humidity of 63%. That distance between temperature and dew point is the comfortable band: the body can cool itself by evaporation without effort. A dew point above 20 °C, like today’s in Cairns, is the threshold where nearly everyone starts calling the air sticky.

What is the climate of Cairns like through the year?

The warmest month in Cairns is December (25 °C on average) and the coldest is July (19 °C), a swing of about 7 °C around an annual mean of 22 °C. With a swing that size the seasons show up in the wardrobe, but none of them is severe.

Because Cairns lies in the southern hemisphere, at 16.92° south, summer falls in December, January and February — which is why the warmest month shows up at either end of the calendar.

How far is Cairns from Townsville?

The nearest large city to Cairns is Townsville, about 283 km away in a straight line, to the south-east, with 201,313 inhabitants. With more than two hundred kilometres between them, using the Townsville forecast for Cairns is a common mistake: these are weather regimes that can diverge for days. Being larger, Townsville shows up in more searches, and plenty of people end up reading its forecast assuming it covers Cairns.

Words on this page

Apparent temperature

The temperature the body actually feels, rather than the one on the thermometer. It combines air temperature with wind, which carries heat away faster, and humidity, which slows the evaporation of sweat. That is why 30 °C in dry air with a breeze is easier than 28 °C in still, muggy air.

Apparent temperature

Dew point

The temperature air would have to cool to, at constant pressure and moisture, for water to start condensing. The closer the dew point sits to the air temperature, the less room the vapour has and the muggier the day feels.

Dew point

Millimetre of rain

The depth of water rain would leave on a flat surface with no run-off. One millimetre is one litre per square metre, no matter how large the area measured is.

Standard definition by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) · Millimetre of rain

Beaufort scale

A 0-to-12 scale that describes wind strength by what it visibly does: smoke rising straight up at 0, leaves moving at 3, large branches bending at 6, roof damage at 9, devastation at 12. It began at sea in the nineteenth century and now has an official equivalence in metres per second.

Standard definition by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) · Beaufort scale

Forecast model

A program that solves the equations of the atmosphere on a grid of points and steps forward in time from the state observed now. Your city forecast is the model value at the nearest grid point, which is why two neighbouring towns get almost the same numbers.

Standard definition by MET Norway (Meteorologisk institutt) · Forecast model

Model run

The time the model was executed with the latest observations. Every forecast belongs to a run, and runs age: one from six hours ago knows nothing about the shower that started afterwards. It is the first thing to check when two sources disagree.

Standard definition by MET Norway (Meteorologisk institutt) · Model run

Climate normal

The average of a climate element — temperature, rainfall, humidity — computed over a long, standardised period, usually thirty years. It does not predict anything: it says what is typical for that place in that month, and gives you a ruler for calling a week warm or wet.

Standard definition by World Meteorological Organization (WMO) · Climate normal

See the full weather glossary

Source, model and licence

Model: MET Norway, a partir do ECMWF HRES e, na área nórdica, do MEPS
Model run: 16/10/2026, 01:18 UTC
Source: MET Norway (Meteorologisk institutt) — Locationforecast 2.0 — Based on data from MET Norway. Licence: CC BY 4.0 / NLOD 2.0.
Month-by-month climate: NASA POWER — Climatology (MERRA-2, 2001–2020) — The data was obtained from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Langley Research Center's Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) project — Climatology API v2. Dados públicos da NASA, citação obrigatória.
Cities, coordinates and population: Dados de cidades: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)

The page fetches fresh data every 30 minutes. Informational content. For severe weather warnings, follow your country’s official weather service and civil protection authority.