ST. AUGUSTINE · OCTOBER · THE MONTH GUIDE
October takes 6.3°F off a St. Augustine afternoon. The average high drops from September’s 87.2°F to 80.9°F, the average low settles at 61.5°F, and the rain gauge goes from 7.56 inches to 4.03. The ocean lags behind all of it and still averages 77.9°F. Warm water under air you can walk in for four hours is the whole argument for booking this month.
What the date takes back is certainty. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30 and most of its activity falls between mid-August and mid-October, so a trip planned for the 12th of this month is not the same purchase as one planned for the 12th of February. Book a rate you can cancel, read the National Hurricane Center outlook in the week before you fly, and October turns into one of the better weekends on the Florida calendar.
THE MONTH AT A GLANCE · ST. AUGUSTINE · OCTOBER
October is the month when 80.9°F afternoons and 77.9°F water arrive together, and the only real cost is that it still sits inside the hurricane window.
AVG HIGH 80.9°F · SEA 77.9°F · 5.1 WET DAYS · 11 H 29 MIN OF DAYLIGHT
Go for: water still at 77.9°F, evenings that no longer need air conditioning, and a 9:00 a.m. walk into the Castillo before the coquina heats up.
Think twice before: booking non-refundable: most Atlantic storm activity falls between mid-August and mid-October, and this month sits inside that span.
Climate: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020, station USW00013889 · Sea: Open-Meteo Marine · Forts: National Park Service · full sources at the end
On this page
- St. Augustine weather in OctoberHighs of 80.9°F and 5.1 wet days
- Sea temperature in October77.9°F, read as daily maxima
- Crowds, booking and the tourist taxThe 5% county tax and the refundable rate
- Things to do in OctoberCastillo de San Marcos and Fort Matanzas
- A two-day plan for OctoberTwo days built around a 6:55 p.m. sunset
- October, September or NovemberHow the three months compare
- Is October a good month to go?Who should book and who should wait
Everything below is dated to the month. Where to sleep across the state, how to get around it and when Florida as a whole peaks live in our where-to-stay guide, getting around Florida and the 12-month verdict. The question here is narrower: what the water does in October, what the two forts cost, and whether four weeks either way would suit your trip better.
St. Augustine weather in October: average highs, lows and rain days
| October normal | Value |
|---|---|
| Average high | 80.9°F |
| Average low | 61.5°F |
| Precipitation | 4.03 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 5.1 |
| Days with 1.00 in or more | 1.0 |
| Daylight on Oct 15 | 11 h 29 min |
| Sea surface (daily maxima) | 77.9°F |
The 80.9°F high and 61.5°F low are NOAA NCEI monthly normals for 1991-2020, measured at station USW00013889, a real thermometer at Jacksonville International Airport rather than a gridded reanalysis of the coastline. Where the instrument sits matters in both directions: it stands inland and north of town, so sea air usually keeps the bayfront a touch milder at each end of the day. Total precipitation averages 4.03 inches for the month, just over half of September’s 7.56.
Those inches arrive in very few visits. An average October records measurable rain, meaning 0.10 inch or more, on 5.1 days, roughly one day in six, and exactly 1.0 day brings an inch or more. Read that as one soaked hour rather than a gray week. Keep an indoor hour available on every day of the trip and you will never need an indoor day.
The gap between the average high and the average low is 19.4°F, far wider than anything the summer offers. Afternoons still belong to shorts and a swimsuit. Mornings near 61.5°F feel genuinely cool after a September that bottomed out at 70.5°F, and dinner on the water asks for a long-sleeved layer. One carry-on holds both, and nothing in the month calls for a coat.
On October 15 the sun rises at 7:26 a.m. and sets at 6:55 p.m. Eastern time, giving 11 hours 29 minutes of daylight. St. Augustine keeps Eastern time like Orlando and Miami, since only the western Panhandle runs on Central. The Castillo takes its last admission at 5:00 p.m. and clears the fort at 5:15, so the gate closes with a good hour of light still on the seawall.
Can you swim in St. Augustine in October? Sea temperature and what it feels like
The sea surface off St. Augustine averages 77.9°F in October in the Open-Meteo Marine record for 2015-2024. Read the number the way it was built: it is a mean of daily maxima, so it runs a shade warmer than a 24-hour average of the same water. Treat 77.9°F as the afternoon figure and assume a cooler first step at eight in the morning.
For most American swimmers that is a proper swim with no preamble, and the difference from summer shows up in how long you stay rather than whether you go in. September’s water ran 83.7°F, November’s runs 72.7°F, which is the point where the shortie appears on the sand. Before any of that, look at the pole: Florida’s warning flags run double red for closed water, red, yellow, green, and purple for dangerous marine life, and no law compels a beach to fly a single one of them.
We could not verify wind or wave statistics for this stretch of coast in October, so no swell height is given. The storm calendar is verified: the season runs June 1 to November 30 and peaks on September 10, with most activity between mid-August and mid-October. A system well offshore is still weather at the waterline, and our Florida safety guide covers rips and flags in more detail.
How busy is St. Augustine in October? Crowds, prices and the demand peak
October straddles two calendars. Florida’s dry season opens in November and the hurricane season does not close until November 30, so this is the last month before the good weather becomes reliable and the first with air worth walking in. We found no occupancy series and no monthly room-rate series for St. Johns County, so we crown no month cheap and no month expensive here. What we can name is the calendar position, not the currency.
Book what you can cancel, and decide the flight before the room. Jacksonville JAX is the nearest large airport, a medium hub that boarded 3,749,791 passengers in 2024, against 27,859,783 at Orlando MCO, so compare both before assuming the closer field wins on fare. Booking-window data for local hotels we could not verify, and no advance figure in weeks is given for that reason. Two nights covers the old town comfortably; three lets one of them rain.
On the room itself, the tax is knowable in advance. St. Johns County levies a 5.0% transient rental tax on short stays, filed and paid alongside Florida’s 6% state sales tax, which puts 11% on top of the nightly rate before any resort or parking charge a property adds. Both rates come from the Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT. We have no verified resort-fee or parking figures for any hotel in town, so budget the 11% and ask the property about the rest.
There is one line where paying more genuinely changes the month, and it is the cancellation policy. A larger room adds nothing that an 80.9°F afternoon has not already delivered. A refundable rate buys the single thing October cannot promise, which is that the week you picked will look like the normal. Our Florida trip cost guide sets out how the rest of the budget usually splits.
Things to do in St. Augustine in October
October is the overlap month. September’s 87.2°F afternoons turn a walk on open stone into an endurance test, and November pulls the sea down to 72.7°F and ends the casual swim. At 80.9°F and 77.9°F you get both halves of the town on the same day: a masonry fort at noon, the Atlantic at four, dinner outside at seven with nothing extra in the bag.
Castillo de San Marcos charges $15.00 for adults aged 16 and up, valid for seven consecutive days, with children 15 and under free when an adult comes along. First admission 9:00 a.m., last admission 5:00 p.m., everyone out at 5:15, seven days a week apart from Thanksgiving and Christmas. The Park Service calls it the oldest masonry fortification in the continental United States and notes it is built of coquina, the only local stone. Fort Matanzas, the coquina watchtower completed in 1742, guards the southern approach and charges nothing.
October 1 is a working date at two more places. The St. Augustine Lighthouse switches that day to 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with the last ticket at 5:30, half an hour tighter than its March-to-September schedule, and the tower of 1874 is climbed on general admission under your own power. Children under 44 inches are not allowed up. Its admission price we could not read at the source, so none is quoted. The Fort Matanzas ferry year also runs October 1 to September 30.
Free, this month as any other: every part of Fort Matanzas including the boat out to it, though the boarding pass comes from the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center rather than the city visitor center downtown, and each family member of any age needs one. Daily departure times we could not read at the source, so arrive early instead of to a timetable. Under Florida law the wet sand below the mean high-water line is public, while dry sand above it can be private.
St. Augustine in October: a two-day itinerary
Day one starts at the 9:00 a.m. opening of the Castillo, when the coquina is still cool and the $15 ticket quietly covers the next six days. Out by eleven, across to the water while the surface is working toward its 77.9°F afternoon reading, and lunch under a roof in case the shower hour arrives. Back at four for the light on the bastions, or up the lighthouse tower before the 5:30 p.m. last ticket. Sunset at 6:55, then the seawall.
Day two heads south: collect the free boarding passes at the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center, cross to the 1742 watchtower, and give the afternoon to the beach. If the sky turns, remember that an average October brings only 1.0 day with an inch or more, and a seven-day Castillo ticket means a washed-out morning costs nothing to repeat. The fort still clears at 5:15 in the rain, so shift the fort to day three rather than waiting out the cell at the gate.
St. Augustine in October vs September and November
| Normal | September | October | November |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average high | 87.2°F | 80.9°F | 73.2°F |
| Average low | 70.5°F | 61.5°F | 51.3°F |
| Precipitation | 7.56 in | 4.03 in | 2.00 in |
| Days with 0.10 in or more | 8.4 | 5.1 | 3.9 |
| Sea surface (daily maxima) | 83.7°F | 77.9°F | 72.7°F |
Four weeks in either direction moves three dials at once. September runs 6.3°F hotter by day and 9.0°F warmer at night, and it pours: 7.56 inches across 8.4 wet days against 4.03 inches across 5.1. November dries out further still, 2.00 inches on 3.9 days, and charges for it with a 51.3°F average low and water at 72.7°F. All three columns come from the same NOAA station and the same marine series.
Shift back and you gain 83.7°F water and a bayfront evening in shirtsleeves, and you buy the statistical peak of the hurricane season on September 10, as the September page lays out. Shift forward and you gain the opening of the dry season on November 1, the close of the storm season on the 30th, and mornings cool enough for a jacket. You lose 5.2°F of ocean, which turns the swim from a default into a decision.
Is October a good time to visit St. Augustine?
Yes for anyone who wants to swim and walk on the same day, and for families weighing the Castillo against the beach with no need to choose. Yes for a long weekend, since 11 hours 29 minutes of daylight still holds a fort visit, a swim and a sunset. No for travelers who need a locked, non-refundable booking months out, because the month sits squarely in the storm window.
If that is your situation, take November instead: 73.2°F afternoons, 2.00 inches of rain over 3.9 days, the dry season open and the hurricane season closed by the end of it. The price is the sea at 72.7°F and mornings near 51.3°F, which makes it a walking and fort month rather than a swimming one. Our Florida national parks guide explains where the two local NPS units sit among the state’s eleven.
Of the three months on either side, only October puts 77.9°F water under 80.9°F air, and it does it with 5.1 wet days instead of September’s 8.4.
The last word
Pick the refundable rate, pick two nights minimum, and let the 9:00 a.m. opening at the Castillo set your body clock for the rest of the trip. One more thing worth carrying down to the water: the Park Service dates the founding of the town to 1565, while the familiar line about the oldest continuously occupied city in the country appears on none of the NPS pages we read, so we leave it unverified. What the Park Service does state is the river’s name, Matanzas, Spanish for slaughters, after the killing of the French Huguenots. The free ferry across it begins a new service year on October 1.
Sources & data for this guide
- October normals: high, low, precipitation and wet days · NOAA NCEI monthly normals 1991-2020, station USW00013889 (Jacksonville International Airport) · checked Sep 23, 2026
- September and November normals · same NOAA NCEI series and station, not estimates · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sea surface 77.9°F, mean of daily maxima 2015-2024 · Open-Meteo Marine API · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Sunrise 7:26 a.m., sunset 6:55 p.m. and 11 h 29 min of daylight on October 15 · sunrise-sunset.org, UTC converted to Eastern time · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Hurricane season dates and the September 10 peak · NOAA National Hurricane Center · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Castillo de San Marcos fees, hours, coquina and the continental wording · National Park Service · checked Sep 7 and 8, 2026
- Fort Matanzas free admission, boarding passes, the 1742 watchtower and the 1565 founding date · National Park Service · checked Sep 23, 2026
- St. Johns County 5.0% transient rental tax and the 6% state sales tax · Florida Department of Revenue, form DR-15TDT · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Lighthouse hours from October 1 and the 44-inch rule · St. Augustine Lighthouse & Maritime Museum · checked Sep 23, 2026. We could not read its general admission price at the source, so no price is quoted above.
- JAX and MCO 2024 boardings · Federal Aviation Administration, CY2024 · checked Sep 23, 2026
- Beach warning flags and wet-sand access · Florida Statutes s. 380.276 and s. 163.035 · checked Sep 23, 2026
- We found no occupancy or room-rate series for St. Johns County, and no verified hotel or restaurant names, so no month is ranked on price and no property is named.
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