The Bahamas in August: Weather, Crawfish Season and Where to Go

On the first morning of August, the pots come out at Arawak Cay in Nassau, where stew lobster simmers in brown gravy and the crawfish season opens for another year. Clouds build over the harbor by early afternoon, and the water in every direction is warm as a summer pond. This is the Bahamas in the heart of summer: hot days, afternoon downpours, a holiday weekend for Emancipation Day and the islands’ best-loved seafood back on the menu.

A white-sand beach in the Bahamas in summer · Illustration

What is the weather like in the Bahamas in August?

August is hot, humid and showery across the islands, and the sea is as warm as it gets all year. In Nassau, afternoons run into the low 90s and nights barely cool off, while around the Exumas, Grand Bahama and Bimini the water holds in the high 80s.

Month	Nassau average high (°F)	Nassau average low (°F)	Nassau rain days	Sea at Nassau (°F)	Sea at the Exumas (°F)	Sea at Grand Bahama (°F)	Sea at Bimini (°F)
July	90.8	76.4	12.4	87.8	87.3	87.2	88.9
August	91.0	76.4	14.4	87.6	87.3	87.3	88.1
September	89.9	76.0	13.3	86.7	87.3	86.7	87.2

In Nassau, rain falls on roughly every other day in August, and it usually arrives as a heavy shower or a stormy afternoon that clears and leaves the streets steaming. Mornings are the more reliable part of the day for walking around town, and the evenings stay warm enough to eat outside. Daylight lasts well into the evening, a little less than in July.

The sea is where the islands differ. Bimini sits at the warm end, with water in the upper 80s, and Nassau follows close behind. The Exumas and Grand Bahama share almost the same reading, a touch lower. The gap between them is small enough that the choice of island rarely turns on water temperature. It turns on what you want to do once you are in it.

Where to go in the Bahamas in August

Nassau, Paradise Island and Cable Beach

Nassau, on New Providence, is the capital and largest city, and it is where the crawfish season is most visible in August. Arawak Cay is the place for it, with stew lobster on the breakfast menu at Gone Fishing. Crawfish salad, made with onions, sweet peppers, lime juice and diced lobster, turns up at the stalls nearby, on a bed of greens or tucked into a sandwich.

Cable Beach is Nassau’s hotel district, with five hotels, two of them all-inclusive. Paradise Island, with its resort towers, is the other base for a beach-centered stay. Because the afternoon showers are frequent, plan the open-air part of the day, the old town, the waterfront and the straw market, for the morning, and keep the pool, the casino floors and the long lunches for when the clouds roll in.

The Exumas

The Exumas are a chain of cays strung along very clear water, with George Town on Great Exuma as the main hub and Staniel Cay further along. Thunderball Grotto, a few hundred yards off Staniel Cay, was a filming location for the James Bond film Thunderball, and it is the cave that boat trips from the cays like to name first.

In August the sea around George Town sits in the high 80s, which suits days spent on a boat among the cays. Summer squalls can build quickly out on the water, so the shape of each day depends on the sky. Mornings on the water and afternoons in a beach bar with a conch salad is a sound rhythm for the month.

Grand Bahama: Freeport and Lucaya

Grand Bahama is the island of Freeport and Lucaya, with Port Lucaya as the waterfront where you eat, shop and wander in the evening. The sea off Freeport and Lucaya holds in the high 80s in August, almost exactly what it does around the Exumas.

The island suits travelers who want a resort-town base with restaurants within reach and a long coastline to explore beyond it. In August, with showers common, a lazy morning on the beach and a long seafood lunch is the safest way to organize a day. Crawfish is on the menu all month, so look for it grilled, in salads or in stew.

Bimini

Bimini, with Alice Town as its main settlement, has the warmest sea of the places in this month’s table, in the upper 80s. Alice Town is a strip of low buildings, bars and docks where the talk is about boats and the day’s catch, and August is a month when the water is as warm as it will be all year.

The island suits travelers who prefer a small, boat-minded place to a big resort town. As elsewhere in the Bahamas, an August day here follows the weather: sun in the morning, clouds and a shower in the afternoon, and a warm evening on the dock.

What to do in the Bahamas in August

The biggest thing on the August calendar is the food. Crawfish season opens on August 1 and runs until the end of March, so the month starts with the freshest crawfish of the year on tables across the islands. On many menus the words crawfish and lobster are used interchangeably, and if a different lobster is served, the menu names it.

Eating crawfish the Bahamian way

Start with the dishes by name. Stew lobster is big chunks of crawfish simmered in a rich, brown gravy, and at Gone Fishing on Arawak Cay it is part of the breakfast menu, which makes for a very different first meal of the day. Crawfish salad is the lighter version, with onions, sweet peppers and lime juice, served on greens or alone.

The same salad makes a very good sandwich, which is what to look for if you want lunch on the go between a morning outing and an afternoon shower. Along the waterfront in Nassau and Port Lucaya, you can build several meals out of this one ingredient without repeating yourself.

Emancipation Day and the summer vacation weekend

Emancipation Day, a public holiday observed on the first Monday of August, marks the end of slavery in the British Empire and gives the Bahamas a long summer weekend. Families gather, there are cookouts and beach days, and the mood in the settlements is festive. It is a good moment to see the Bahamas the way Bahamians spend their own summer.

Nassau’s Junkanoo, the festival of rushing parades with cowbells, goatskin drums and costumes, is tied to December 26 and January 1, and to July 10, so it is not an August event. But Fox Hill Day, held in the community of Fox Hill in August, keeps a similar spirit with local food and music, and is an event worth asking about once you are in Nassau.

Days on the water

With the sea in the high 80s, August is a month for boats. The Exumas are the place to go looking for Thunderball Grotto off Staniel Cay, and for the string of cays around George Town. Bimini’s docks and Grand Bahama’s Port Lucaya marina are the other places where a day on the water begins.

Keep a flexible plan. Afternoon storms can interrupt a day outside, and a morning departure fits the pattern of the month. Back on shore, a rainy afternoon is a good excuse for a long lunch of conch and crawfish, then another look at the sky.

Is the Bahamas busy in August?

Is the Bahamas busy in August? Bahamians themselves take to the beaches and the settlements for the holiday, so the festive energy is local as well as visitor-driven.

The places with a resort base, Cable Beach and Paradise Island in Nassau, Freeport and Lucaya on Grand Bahama, and George Town on Great Exuma, are the ones with the most going on, with restaurants, pools and organized outings. The smaller settlements, such as Alice Town on Bimini and the cays around Staniel Cay, have a quieter, boat-minded pace.

The heat and the showers shape how people spend the day more than any crowd does. Mornings are for the outdoors, afternoons are for shade and long lunches, and evenings, which stay warm, are for the waterfront. Visitors who plan around that pattern tend to find the month relaxed, with the added attraction of a very warm sea.

The tropical season also adds a layer to planning, since August leads into the most active stretch of the Atlantic hurricane season. For that reason, many travelers watch the forecast in the days before they leave and again once they arrive.

What to pack for the Bahamas in August

Packing for August is the same on every island: light clothes for heat and humidity, and something for the showers. Nassau and Paradise Island add dinner-out clothes for resort restaurants, while the Exumas, Bimini and the quieter cays call for swimwear, sandals and clothes that dry fast after a boat ride or a downpour.

Lightweight, breathable shirts and shorts that dry quickly after a shower.
Two swimsuits, so one can dry while you wear the other.
A light rain jacket or a small umbrella for the afternoon downpours.
A wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses and sunscreen for the strong summer sun.
Sandals or water shoes for docks, boats and wet sand.
A dry bag or waterproof pouch for a phone on boat days.

Good to know before you go

The U.S. State Department rates the Bahamas Level 2, “Exercise increased caution”, and says most crime occurs in Nassau on New Providence and in Freeport on Grand Bahama.

The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and the most active stretch lies between mid-August and mid-October, so August leads straight into it. The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism & Aviation monitors tropical storms and hurricanes in the Atlantic, and travelers are encouraged to check the Bahamas.com hurricane page for updates on storm-related weather.

Each island has its own conditions on any given day, so look at the forecast for the one you are visiting rather than for the country as a whole. Keep in mind that marijuana is illegal in the Bahamas and that the law is enforced with strict penalties.

Is August a good time to visit the Bahamas?

August is a good month for travelers who want very warm water, long hot days and the first crawfish of the season, and who are comfortable with showers and a place in the hurricane season. For a boat-centered trip, the Exumas and Bimini suit it best, while Nassau and Grand Bahama offer more to do when the clouds move in.

Compared with July, August is a little wetter in Nassau, with more rainy days, and it brings the crawfish opening and the Emancipation Day weekend. July is slightly drier and has Independence Day festivities on July 10, but it lacks the new crawfish season. The sea is nearly the same, though Bimini is a degree or so cooler in August.

September is a little cooler, in both the air and the sea, and it sits at the very center of the hurricane season, with the seasonal peak falling on September 10. Travelers who value the opening of crawfish season and the holiday weekend, and who accept the afternoon showers, will find August the fuller month of the two.

What marks August in the Bahamas is a bowl of stew lobster at breakfast on Arawak Cay, a holiday weekend that belongs to Bahamians, and a sea so warm that an afternoon on a boat among the cays feels like the whole point of the month.

Sources

NOAA NCEI, GHCN-Daily station BF000078073 (Nassau Airport), normals 1991-2020 computed from the daily record (https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1?dataset=daily-summaries&stations=BF000078073), checked October 10, 2026
Open-Meteo Marine API, average 2015-2024, checked October 10, 2026
sunrise-sunset.org, sunrise and sunset calculated for the 15th of the month, checked October 10, 2026
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, crawfish season (https://www.bahamas.com/blog/its-crawfish-season), checked October 10, 2026
NOAA National Hurricane Center, Climatology (https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/climo/), checked October 10, 2026
Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Investments & Aviation (bahamas.com), Hurricane and storm information (https://www.bahamas.com/hurricane-storm-information), checked October 10, 2026
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Wikipedia, Exuma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exuma), checked October 10, 2026
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Bahamas Department of Immigration, Entry requirements (https://www.immigration.gov.bs/entry-requirements/), checked October 10, 2026
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