St. Augustine in July: Weather, Sea Temperature, Crowds and Things to Do

ST. AUGUSTINE · JULY · FLORIDA’S ATLANTIC COAST

Summer here arrives with numbers you can plan around: a normal high of 91.9°F, a low that stops at 73.2°F, and 6.77 inches of rain delivered across about ten days. The National Park Service dates the founding of the town to 1565. The familiar claim about the oldest continuously occupied city in the country is repeated everywhere, but it appears on none of the NPS pages we read, so we serve the date and leave the superlative alone.

What July gives a trip is water at 84.5°F and light until 8:28 p.m. What it takes away is the middle of the day. Swim early, put the 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. block indoors, come back out at six, and the vacation works. Walk the old town with a stroller at two in the afternoon and it does not.

On this page

• St. Augustine weather in JulyHighs of 91.9°F, and 9.9 rain days
• Is the ocean warm enough to swim?84.5°F water, flags and beach access
• Crowds, taxes and when to bookSummer break, and 11% on the room bill
• Things to do in JulyCastillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas, the lighthouse
• A two-day plan around the heatFrom the 6:33 a.m. sunrise to the 8:28 p.m. sunset
• July, June or August?How the three summer months compare
• Is July a good time to go?Who should shift the dates, and to when
• St. Augustine in JuneThe month before, with its own normals

Everything below is dated to July. For the statewide calendar, the dry season and the hurricane window, see when to visit Florida; what a week costs across the state sits in our trip-cost guide, and the two federal sites in town are placed among the others in Florida’s national parks.

St. Augustine weather in July: average highs, lows and rain days

Every figure here comes from one thermometer: NOAA’s 1991-2020 monthly normals for station USW00013889, at Jacksonville International Airport. That is a real gauge with a thirty-year record, not a grid-cell reanalysis, and the two can disagree by a couple of degrees on the same month. The gauge also sits inland and north of the old town, so beachfront readings in St. Augustine can differ from the 91.9°F normal high and the 73.2°F normal low.

Measurable rain falls on 9.9 July days, roughly one day in three, and 2.2 of those days bring an inch or more. The 6.77-inch total arrives mostly as afternoon convection: storms that build, empty and move off rather than settling in for the day. In practice that is a reason to have a roof picked out for 3 p.m., not a reason to move the trip.

The spread between 91.9°F and 73.2°F is 18.7 degrees, and almost none of it lands while you are awake and outdoors. Nights hold in the low seventies, so nothing in the bag is for warmth. Pack for water and sun instead: a refillable bottle per person, a hat that survives a breeze, quick-dry shirts, and one light layer purely for restaurant air conditioning.

On July 15 the sun rises at 6:33 a.m. and sets at 8:28 p.m. Eastern time, 13 hours 55 minutes of daylight. St. Augustine lies east of the Apalachicola River, so the northeast coast runs on Eastern time like Orlando and Miami, not on the Panhandle’s Central. Use the evening: at 7:30 p.m. an hour of usable light remains, and the beach walk you skipped at noon is back on.

Can you swim in St. Augustine in July? Sea temperature and beach flags

The ocean off St. Augustine averages 84.5°F in July, from ten years of Open-Meteo Marine data covering 2015 to 2024. Read the number carefully: it is an average of daily peak readings, not a 24-hour average, so it runs a shade warmer than tables built the other way. Expect other sources to publish a slightly lower figure for exactly the same water.

At 84.5°F there is no entry shock and no wetsuit conversation. The water sits about seven degrees below the day’s normal high, enough to take the edge off an afternoon and nowhere near cool enough to end a swim on its own. Children will stay in until somebody makes them come out, so budget more sunscreen than swim time.

We found no monthly wind or wave series for this stretch of coast, so we give no surf or chop figures. The signal system is fixed, though: double red means the water is closed, red high hazard, yellow medium, green low hazard, and purple flies beside another flag for dangerous marine life. No Florida law obliges a beach to fly any of them, so a bare pole is not a green flag. One rule before you drop a towel: under Florida Statutes 163.035, wet sand below the mean high-water line is public, while dry sand above it can be private.

How busy is St. Augustine in July? Summer break, lodging taxes and booking

July falls inside the national school summer break, and every Atlantic beach town shares that window. Beyond the calendar we have nothing: no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate data for St. Johns County came back to us, so we crown no month expensive and quote no nightly figure. What does not move with the season is the fixed layer of the bill.

Cancellation terms matter more than lead time here. NOAA dates the Atlantic hurricane season June 1 to November 30, with a September 10 peak and most activity between mid-August and mid-October, so July is inside the season but ahead of its busiest stretch. We could not verify how far in advance rooms fill in summer, so we give no number of weeks. Book refundable, and check the tropics in the ten days before you fly.

The tax line is verified and steady: St. Johns County levies a 5.0% transient rental tax on short stays, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax, so 11% lands on top of the advertised rate in any month, vacation rentals included. Nothing about that percentage changes for July.

The one upgrade that changes this month specifically is location. A bed within walking distance of the old town buys the Castillo’s 9:00 a.m. first admission without a midday return to a hot car, and an 8 p.m. stroll instead of a drive. We have verified no hotel, no rate and no restaurant, so treat that as a shape to shop for rather than a recommendation, and see where to stay in Florida for the statewide logic.

Things to do in St. Augustine in July: Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Matanzas and the lighthouse

July offers two things the shoulder months cannot: a sea at 84.5°F, the warmest of the three summer months, and 13 hours 55 minutes of daylight on the 15th. Together they make the split day possible, with water before ten, stone and shade in the middle, and a second outdoor session after six that still counts as daytime. Families working the same math will recognize the pattern from Florida with kids.

The Castillo de San Marcos, the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States in the Park Service’s careful wording, charges $15 for adults 16 and over, and that ticket stays valid seven consecutive days. Children 15 and under go free with an adult. First admission is 9:00 a.m., last admission 5:00 p.m., and the fort clears at 5:15. Fort Matanzas, downriver, costs nothing at all. The St. Augustine Lighthouse opens 9:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. through September 30, last ticket at 6:00 p.m., and its 1874 tower is climbable on general admission. We could not read that admission price, so we quote none.

Both forts are built of coquina, the only local stone the Spanish had, and the Matanzas watchtower was completed in 1742. The walls are the same in every month; the air is not. Under a 91.9°F normal high, the open gun deck is a twenty-minute stop at 2 p.m. and a comfortable hour at 9:00 a.m. The lighthouse climb is enclosed brick, so treat its 9:00 a.m. opening the same way, and note that children under 44 inches cannot go up the tower in any season.

Free in July, and verified: every area of Fort Matanzas National Monument, the ferry to the fort included. The boarding pass costs nothing but must be collected at the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center rather than the city visitor center downtown, and each family member needs their own, whatever their age. Add free entry for under-16s at the Castillo and the public wet sand below the high-water line, and a family day here comes down to two adult tickets and lunch.

St. Augustine in July: a two-day itinerary

Day one opens at the beach, since sunrise is 6:33 a.m. and the sand is usable long before any gate does. Be at the Castillo for the 9:00 a.m. first admission, allow an hour on the gun deck, and be under a roof by noon. Give 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. to lunch and air conditioning. Come back out when the storm has moved off, take the 6:00 p.m. last ticket at the lighthouse, and close with a swim in 84.5°F water under a sun that holds until 8:28 p.m.

Day two runs south to Fort Matanzas: collect the free boarding passes at its own visitor center, ride the free ferry, then back to the beach for the afternoon. The ferry service runs October 1 to September 30, so July is inside it, but we could not read the daily departure times at the source, so confirm them when you pick up the passes. If the sky turns, the seven-day Castillo ticket is the fix. Bank the fort for the next clear morning and spend the wet hour indoors, because 2.2 July days bring an inch of rain or more.

St. Augustine in July vs June and August

The three months sit closer together than their reputations suggest. July runs the hottest afternoons at 91.9°F against 90.8 in August and 89.9 in June, and it is also the driest of the three on total rainfall, 6.77 inches against June’s 7.60. Rain days barely shift: 9.7, then 9.9, then 10.3. The water climbs through the summer and tops out in July at 84.5°F, with August a whisker behind at 84.0 and June clearly cooler at 82.2.

Moving four weeks earlier buys two degrees off the afternoon and nights 2.5 degrees cooler, at a cost of 0.83 inch more rain and a sea at 82.2°F. Moving four weeks later saves about a degree of daytime heat, gains nothing on the water, and pushes the trip into mid-August, the start of the stretch NOAA marks as the season’s most active. For a week built around swimming, July wins the three-way.

Is July a good time to visit St. Augustine?

Yes, if the trip is built on water and evenings. An 84.5°F ocean, an 8:28 p.m. sunset and two federal sites that cost $15 and nothing make a strong family week, and that $15 covers seven consecutive days. No, if the point of coming was to walk a historic town at your own pace: 91.9°F afternoons remove the middle of the day from a walking itinerary, and no amount of planning puts it back.

If that settles it, the month to prefer is not another summer month. Florida’s dry season runs November through April, and that is the window in which the old town can be walked at any hour. Inside summer itself, June is the mildest of the three on temperature, though it pays with 7.60 inches of rain and a sea at 82.2°F.

One thing July alone delivers: the warmest sea of the summer, 84.5°F, while the calendar still sits ahead of the mid-August to mid-October stretch NOAA calls the season’s most active.

The last word

Choose the dates for the water, then build the hours around the heat, and July behaves. On the flights: Jacksonville International, the nearest large airport, boarded 3,749,791 passengers in 2024 against 27,859,783 at Orlando, so arrivals are a smaller and quicker affair than MCO, at the cost of fewer nonstops (our flights guide has the comparison). Pick up the free Matanzas passes on the first morning, keep the $15 Castillo ticket for its full seven days, and save one beach evening for after 7:30 p.m.

Sources & data for this guide

• July, June and August normals, rain days and totals · NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00013889 (Jacksonville International Airport) · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 84.5°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Daylight, sunrise 6:33 a.m. and sunset 8:28 p.m. on July 15, converted to Eastern time · sunrise-sunset.org · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Hurricane season dates, September 10 peak, mid-August to mid-October activity · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Castillo de San Marcos fees, hours and coquina construction · National Park Service · checked Sep 7 and 8, 2026
• Fort Matanzas free entry, boarding passes, ferry season, 1742 watchtower, 1565 founding date · National Park Service · checked Sep 23, 2026
• St. Johns County 5.0% transient rental tax with the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Lighthouse hours, 1874 tower, 44-inch rule · St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum · checked Sep 23, 2026. We could not read the general admission price, so no ticket figure is given for it.
• Beach warning flags and beach access · Florida Statutes s. 380.276 and s. 163.035, Volusia County Beach Safety · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Airport boardings, CY2024 · Federal Aviation Administration · checked Sep 23, 2026
• We found no occupancy or room-rate series for St. Johns County, and no hotel, rental or restaurant has been verified. Ferry departure times were not readable at the source · confirm hours and fees with operators when you book.

To plan your stay

• Things to Do in St. Augustine: Castillo Tickets, Fort Matanzas Ferry and Lighthouse Hours
• Where to Stay in St. Augustine: Historic District, the Beach and the 5% Lodging Tax
• Airport to St. Augustine: JAX, MCO, Rental Cars and Eastern Time
• St. Augustine Know Before You Go: Castillo Fees, the Fort Matanzas Ferry Pass and Beach Rules

Nearby places

• Silver Glen Springs, Florida: Swimming, Clear Water and Weekend Crowds
• Silver Springs, Florida: Glass-Bottom Boats, No Swimming Area, 1,686 Parking Spaces
• Blue Spring, Florida: Water Temperature, Swimming and Parking Limits