Key West in October: Weather, Sea Temperature, Room Tax and Hurricane Season

KEY WEST · OCTOBER · 24.55° N

October in Key West still runs on summer numbers. The normal high at Key West International Airport is 85.8°F, the sea offshore averages 84.2°F, and the sun holds on until about 7 p.m. in the middle of the month. Nothing closes down for the season either: the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square runs every night of the year, weather permitting, and the Hemingway Home keeps its 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. door open daily.

What you pay for that warmth is 5.67 inches of rain across 7.6 wet days, and a date inside the Atlantic hurricane season: June 1 to November 30, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. That is the trade for anyone weighing an October flight into EYW against a November one. Warmer water, wetter skies, and a room and a ferry seat you want booked on terms you can change.

On this page

• Key West weather in OctoberHighs of 85.8°F and 7.6 wet days
• Can you swim in Key West in October?A sea averaging 84.2°F
• Room tax and when to book5% county tax, 6% state, and a ferry that sells out
• Things to do in Key West in OctoberFort Zachary Taylor, the Hemingway Home, Dry Tortugas
• A two-day Key West itineraryTwo days built around a 7:01 p.m. sunset
• October vs September and NovemberHow the three months compare, in inches and degrees
• Is October a good time to visit Key West?Yes for swimmers, no for fixed dates

Every figure here is sourced where it appears. The normals below are station data: NOAA NCEI’s 1991-2020 series for gauge USW00012836 at Key West International Airport, an instrument standing on the island rather than a reanalysis grid square averaged in with the sea around it. Sea temperature comes from a marine model, sunrise and sunset from astronomical calculation converted to Eastern time. Where our sources disagree, both numbers appear.

Key West weather in October: average highs, lows and rain days

NOAA NCEI puts the October average high at 85.8°F and the average low at 76.8°F, with 5.67 inches of rain across the month, all from the 1991-2020 normals for the airport gauge. Those are readings from a thermometer you could walk to. Grid-cell reanalyses of the same water tend to smooth the lows, and on an island two miles across the difference is worth naming before anyone packs.

Measurable rain falls on 7.6 days in an average October, counting days with at least 0.10 inch: roughly one day in four. Of those, 1.5 days deliver an inch or more, so the serious soaking arrives once or twice a month rather than every afternoon. On a week’s vacation that reads as one or two wet stretches out of seven days. Put the boat day early in the week so a gray morning can be traded for a dry one later.

Nine degrees separate the average high from the average low. Whatever you wear at noon still works at ten at night, so the suitcase argument is about staying dry rather than staying warm. A packable rain shell, a second shirt for the humidity and shoes you do not mind soaking beat any jacket. Old Town is the largest wooden historic district in North America, flat and compact, and your feet will do most of the work.

On October 15 the sun rises at 7:24 a.m. and sets at 7:01 p.m. Eastern time: 11 hours 37 minutes of daylight. That sunset sets the evening clock. The Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square begins about two hours ahead of it, so near 5 p.m. mid-month, and carries on until dusk has faded. At the other end, an 8 a.m. start puts you on the sand long before the afternoon heat settles in.

Can you swim in Key West in October? Sea temperature and the Fort Zachary Taylor beach

The sea surface off Key West averages 84.2°F in October in the Open-Meteo Marine series for 2015-2024. One caveat comes with it: that number is the mean of daily maxima, not a mean over 24 hours, so it reads a shade warmer than tables built the other way. Take 84.2°F as the afternoon figure and shade it down a little for a 7 a.m. swim.

At that temperature there is no gasp going in. You can snorkel for an hour without a shorty, children stay in until they are called out, and an evening swim is pleasant rather than brave. Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park holds the beach most often called the best on the island, within walking distance of Old Town, and it opens 8 a.m. to sundown, 365 days a year.

We found no monthly wind or wave series for the water off Key West, so no swell or breeze figures appear here. What we can date is the season: October sits inside the Atlantic hurricane season, June 1 to November 30, whose peak is September 10 and whose busiest stretch runs mid-August to mid-October. A system does not have to make landfall to cancel a sailing, so book anything that floats, the Dry Tortugas ferry above all, on a date you can move.

How busy is Key West in October? Crowds, room tax and when to book

October falls before the winter stretch that fills the island from the holidays onward, and inside the last six weeks of the hurricane season. Those are dates on a calendar, not price signals. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for Key West, so we crown no month the cheapest and none the dearest. Anyone budgeting the whole trip will get further with our Florida trip cost guide than with a figure invented here.

The booking with a real deadline in October is the boat. The Yankee Freedom III, the ferry to Dry Tortugas, leaves Key West daily at 8 a.m. with check-in closing at 7:30, and it sells out weeks ahead: a month of lead time is the sensible minimum. Flights and the car are the other lead items. Key West has its own airport at EYW, and from Miami the road south runs about 155 miles and close to four hours without stops, as our Keys road trip guide lays out leg by leg.

Monroe County levies a 5.0% transient rental tax on short stays, filed and paid alongside the 6% state sales tax, per Florida Department of Revenue form DR-15TDT. That is 11% on top of the nightly rate before any resort fee or parking charge a property adds on its own. On a four-night stay it is a line you can feel. The rate quoted on the booking page and the total on the folio at checkout are two different numbers.

Parking is where money changes an October day. City street meters run $3.00 an hour. The Old Town Parking Garage charges $6 an hour or $48 a day plus tax, the Mallory Square lot $7 an hour or $48 a day with a ten-hour cap, and the Key West Bight lot $5 an hour or $40 a day. Leaving the rental parked once and walking costs less on a flat island, and the island’s free bus covers the rest.

Things to do in Key West in October: Fort Zachary Taylor, the Hemingway Home and Dry Tortugas

October keeps September’s sea and drops part of its rain. The water still averages 84.2°F against September’s 88.3°F, while the month brings 5.67 inches of rain instead of 7.24, over 7.6 wet days instead of 10.2. That gap is what makes long water days plausible: a full day on a boat, or a morning of snorkeling and an afternoon on the sand, with fewer interruptions than September’s ten wet days imply.

Fort Zachary Taylor charges $6.00 per vehicle for up to eight people plus a $0.50 county surcharge per person, $4.50 for a single-occupant car or a motorcycle, and $2.50 on foot or by bicycle. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum takes walk-ins 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, $19 for adults, $7 for children, free under six. Dry Tortugas National Park lies 70 miles west with no road or bridge to it, and the 2026 adult ferry fare runs about $250 with park entrance, snorkel gear, breakfast and lunch included.

The opening hours never move with the season; the air does. Fort Zachary Taylor runs 8 a.m. to sundown all year, and in October sundown lands near 7 p.m., so the last two hours of beach light come after the fort itself shuts at 5 p.m. The Hemingway garden sits under 85.8°F afternoons this month against November’s 81.0°F, and the cats, which the museum traces to the novelist’s polydactyl Snow White, claim the shade first.

Free in October, as in every month: the Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square, nightly and weather permitting, from roughly two hours before sunset until dusk has gone. Mile Marker 0 stands at the corner of Whitehead and Fleming, the southern end of a US-1 that runs about 2,370 miles north to Fort Kent, Maine. The Duval Loop bus costs nothing and calls at 18 stops around Old Town, though it does not reach the airport. Its timetable differs between sources, one giving every 20 minutes from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., another every 15 minutes until midnight after a slower early morning, so read the sign at the stop.

Key West in October: a two-day itinerary

Day one runs on the light. Sunrise is 7:24 a.m. mid-month, so an 8 a.m. walk out to Fort Zachary Taylor puts you on the sand for $2.50 a head before the heat builds. Swim until eleven in water averaging 84.2°F. Give the middle of the day to shade: the Hemingway Home opens at nine, costs $19 and takes about an hour, and a slice of key lime pie, Florida’s official state pie since 2006, counts as a lunch course. Be at Mallory Square by 5 p.m., two hours ahead of a 7:01 p.m. sunset.

Day two belongs to the boat when the forecast holds. Check-in for the Yankee Freedom III closes at 7:30 a.m. for an 8 a.m. sailing, and you are back with the evening free. If the weather turns, and one October day in four carries measurable rain, keep the day ashore: Old Town covers well on foot, the free Loop bus runs when your legs quit, and the ferry seat is the one ticket worth sliding to the far end of the stay.

Key West in October vs September and November

October lands between its neighbors on every measure. The average high steps down from 89.0°F in September to 85.8°F, then to 81.0°F in November. Rain falls off faster than heat does: 7.24 inches, then 5.67, then 2.05, with wet days going 10.2, 7.6, 3.0. The sea cools more slowly than the air, 88.3°F to 84.2°F to 81.2°F, so swimming survives well into November even once the afternoons stop feeling like summer.

Shift four weeks later and you trade 3.62 inches of rain for cooler afternoons, with the hurricane season closing on November 30. Shift four weeks earlier and the water climbs to 88.3°F, but September carries 10.2 wet days and the September 10 peak of the season, a case we set out in full in Key West in September. For the whole-state view of the same choice, our best time to visit Florida guide runs all twelve months.

Is October a good time to visit Key West?

Yes, if your priority is water. An 84.2°F sea, 85.8°F afternoons and 7.6 wet days add up to a swimming, snorkeling and boat-day month, with the island keeping its full daily hours: Mallory Square nightly, the Hemingway Home nine to five, Fort Zachary Taylor eight to sundown. No, if your dates cannot move. October sits in the active half of the hurricane season, and a non-refundable week at the end of the Overseas Highway is a bet with no upside.

When the answer is no, move to November rather than September. Rain drops to 2.05 inches over 3.0 wet days, the sea still averages 81.2°F, and the season ends on the 30th. You give up about five degrees of air and three of water. You gain a forecast you can plan a ferry against, and a beach day that no longer hinges on a system four days out in the Atlantic.

No other month pairs September’s swimming water, 84.2°F, with a rain total already an inch and a half lighter than September’s 7.24 inches.

The last word

Settle the refundable question first and the rest of October takes care of itself: a room you can move, a ferry seat you can move, everything else booked on the day. One more thing worth knowing before you picture a quiet Duval morning. In November 2020 Key West voters approved a cap of 1,500 disembarking cruise passengers a day and a ban on ships carrying more than 1,300 people, and the state nullified both with SB 1194, written to apply retroactively. The big ships still call, so ask your hotel which days they are due.

Sources & data for this guide

• October highs, lows, precipitation and wet-day counts · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00012836 (Key West International Airport) · checked Sep 23, 2026
• September and November normals, same series and same station · NOAA NCEI · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sea surface 84.2°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Sunrise 7:24 a.m., sunset 7:01 p.m. and 11 h 37 min of daylight on October 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, converted to America/New_York · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Atlantic hurricane season dates, September 10 peak and the mid-August to mid-October stretch · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Monroe County 5.0% transient rental tax alongside the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Fort Zachary Taylor fees and hours · Florida State Parks · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Hemingway Home hours, $19 adult and $7 child admission, and the Snow White lineage, which is the museum’s own account · hemingwayhome.com · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Dry Tortugas access and the 2026 Yankee Freedom III fare of about $250 · National Park Service and drytortugas.com · checked Sep 23, 2026 · fares change
• Street meter, garage and lot rates · City of Key West Parking Department · checked Sep 23, 2026 · rates change
• Duval Loop, free service and 18 stops · City of Key West and local guides · checked Sep 23, 2026 · the published timetables disagree, so we give both and send you to the stop sign
• Cruise referendum of November 2020 and SB 1194 · Seatrade Cruise and Florida Politics · checked Sep 23, 2026
• Mile Marker 0 and the distance to Fort Kent · Atlas Obscura and Key West Travel Guide · checked Sep 23, 2026 · sources give 2,369 and 2,390 miles, we round
• We found no occupancy or room-rate series for Key West, so we name no cheapest and no priciest month
• We found no monthly wind or wave series off Key West, so we publish no swell or breeze figures

To plan your stay

• Things to Do in Key West: Hours, Prices, Hemingway House and the Dry Tortugas Ferry
• Where to Stay in Key West: Old Town, New Town and What Parking Costs
• Key West Airport to Old Town: Transfers, Parking and the Drive from Miami
• What to Know Before You Go to Key West: Parking, the Free Duval Loop, Sunset and the Dry Tortugas Ferry

Nearby places

• Everglades National Park: The Complete Visitor's Guide
• Big Cypress National Preserve: Dark Sky Park, Swamp Buggies and the $100 ORV Permit
• Dry Tortugas National Park: Ferry, the $15 Entrance Fee and Camping on Garden Key