Climate Cairns International Airport 2020-2024

Climate and trends: average temperature, flight conditions, precipitation, wind speed and direction.

Calculated from historical METAR data of Cairns International Airport (YBCS) between 2020 and 2024.

VFR conditions (%)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	84.3	82	71	83	80	90
February	87.2	77	76	94	88	90
March	87.6	79	83	87	97	92
April	88.1		83	81	77	97
May	92.6		96	82	94	91
June	92.6		96	88	88	90
July	91.8		78	90	93	94
August	93.9		91	86	92	95
September	95.9		93	95	95	91
October	95.5		98	90	95	97
November	95.9		91	90	97	97
December	89.3		70	88	98	92
Average	90.1	79.4	85.0	87.7	91.1	93.0

59th best VFR conditions of Australia

VFR conditions during daylight period

Percentage of observations where the VFR minimums for ceiling and visibility are met: visibility of 8 km or more and a ceiling of 3,000 ft or more. Only observations between sunrise and sunset are taken into account.

Marginal VFR conditions (%)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	95.9	96	91	96	95	99
February	96.7	95	97	99	98	99
March	96.4	96	96	99	98	99
April	98.0		98	98	95	100
May	98.9		100	96	99	98
June	99.2		100	100	100	99
July	98.7		97	99	99	99
August	99.7		99	100	100	100
September	99.3		99	98	100	99
October	99.2		100	100	100	100
November	99.4		99	98	100	100
December	97.1		88	98	99	100
Average	97.9	95.3	96.9	98.3	98.4	99.1

Marginal VFR conditions or better during daylight period

Percentage of observations where the MVFR minimums for ceiling and visibility are met: visibility of 5 km or more and a ceiling of 1,000 ft or more. Only observations between sunrise and sunset are taken into account.

Maximum temperatures (°C)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	31.1	32	31	32	31	32
February	31.4	31	31	32	31	33
March	30.6	30	30	31	31	31
April	29.6		30	30	29	30
May	27.6		28	28	28	27
June	26.2		28	27	27	26
July	25.8		26	25	27	26
August	26.9		26	27	27	27
September	28.3		28	29	28	28
October	29.8		30	31	31	30
November	31.2		31	32	32	31
December	31.6		31	31	32	32
Average	29.4	31.1	29.0	29.4	29.2	29.3

36th highest temperature of Australia

Average highest temperature per day

The maximum temperature is typically observed some hours after noon.

Minimum temperatures (°C)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	24.5	26	25	25	24	25
February	24.4	25	25	24	24	25
March	24.1	25	24	24	24	24
April	22.7		23	24	23	23
May	20.8		21	21	21	20
June	19.4		20	20	20	20
July	18.4		20	17	20	18
August	18.2		18	19	20	18
September	19.7		20	22	20	21
October	21.6		21	24	23	22
November	23.1		23	24	24	23
December	24.1		24	24	24	25
Average	22.1	25.1	21.7	22.1	22.1	21.8

80th lowest temperature of Australia

Average lowest temperature per day

The minimum temperature is typically observed just before sunrise.

Precipitation (%)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	23.1	14	19	19	17	38
February	18.0	12	27	8	14	27
March	22.7	22	18	16	7	39
April	18.0		16	24	19	11
May	12.2		7	8	6	20
June	8.1		3	6	3	19
July	8.9		16	8	3	5
August	6.1		11	5	6	11
September	4.5		9	3	3	9
October	4.8		3	5	0	3
November	3.0		3	4	2	2
December	14.1		24	10	10	2
Average	12.7	16.2	13.2	9.8	7.5	15.4

Precipitation during daylight period

Percentage of observations with observed rain, drizzle, snow or hail. Only observations between sunrise and sunset are taken into account.

Wind speed (knots)

Month	Average	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	8.3	8	7	7	8	7
February	8.0	8	8	8	7	6
March	9.1	10	8	9	9	9
April	10.6		9	10	9	10
May	11.6		12	8	11	10
June	11.3		9	11	9	11
July	10.8		10	11	8	11
August	11.3		12	11	11	9
September	12.1		13	9	13	12
October	9.8		11	9	8	11
November	10.0		9	9	9	11
December	9.6		10	8	9	8
Average	10.0	8.6	9.8	9.2	9.3	9.6

36th highest wind speed of Australia

Average wind speed

Excluding wind gusts. Only observations between sunrise and sunset are taken into account.

Prevailing wind direction

Month	2024	2023	2022	2021	2020
January	070°	080°	078°	123°	083°
February	123°	133°	128°	110°	046°
March	135°	105°	123°	113°	134°
April		119°	141°	140°	123°
May		142°	135°	140°	141°
June		139°	146°	136°	143°
July		144°	141°	124°	136°
August		141°	133°	135°	121°
September		130°	108°	129°	124°
October		111°	085°	046°	106°
November		086°	086°	096°	107°
December		091°	081°	100°	080°

Prevailing wind direction

Average wind direction, weighed by wind speed. Only observations between sunrise and sunset are taken into account.