Miami does not have four seasons. It has a dry season and a wet season, and almost everything about the cost and the character of a trip follows from which one you land in.
Dry season, roughly November to April
Warm days, cool evenings, low humidity, very little rain. This is high season. Hotel rates are at their highest from around Christmas through March, the beaches are busy, restaurant tables need booking, and the weather is close to faultless.
Wet season, roughly May to October
Hot and genuinely humid, with a thunderstorm most afternoons. Hotel rates fall sharply. The ocean is bath-warm. Hurricane season overlaps most of it.
The transition is sharper than visitors expect. Humidity climbs steeply through May, and by the first week of June the afternoon storm pattern is usually established. It breaks again in mid-to-late October, which is why the second half of that month is so often the best-value fortnight of the year.
Month by month
Temperatures below are approximate long-term averages in Fahrenheit and any given year will differ.
| Month | High / Low | Rain | Crowds | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 76 / 61 | Low | High | Driest month; cool evenings, warm days |
| February | 78 / 63 | Low | Peak | Best all-round weather; highest rates |
| March | 80 / 66 | Low | Peak | Spring break, major festivals, book early |
| April | 83 / 70 | Low–moderate | High | Excellent. The last comfortable month |
| May | 87 / 74 | Rising | Moderate | Humidity arrives; prices start dropping |
| June | 89 / 77 | High | Low | Hurricane season opens; daily storms |
| July | 91 / 79 | High | Moderate | Hottest. Mango season. Cheap rooms |
| August | 91 / 79 | High | Low | Hottest and wettest. Lowest prices |
| September | 89 / 78 | High | Lowest | Statistical hurricane peak; king tides begin |
| October | 86 / 75 | Moderate–high | Low | Improving from mid-month; stone crab returns |
| November | 81 / 69 | Low | Rising | Arguably the best month of the year |
| December | 78 / 64 | Low | Peak | Art Basel resets prices in the first week |
Miami's annual rainfall runs to somewhere around sixty inches, and the great majority of it falls between May and October.
What a summer afternoon actually looks like
This is the most misunderstood thing about Miami weather. Wet season rain is not a grey all-day drizzle. It is a sea-breeze thunderstorm that builds through the middle of the day, arrives somewhere between roughly one and five in the afternoon, dumps an extraordinary volume of water in twenty to sixty minutes, and then clears to a bright, steaming evening.
Two practical consequences. First, plan outdoor things for the morning and indoor things for mid-afternoon and the weather stops being a problem. Second, take the lightning seriously. Florida records more lightning strikes than any other state, lifeguards clear the water when a storm approaches, and they are right to. Get off the beach and out of the pool.
Streets flood briefly during these storms. It usually drains within the hour.
Hurricane season, honestly
The Atlantic hurricane season runs 1 June to 30 November, and the statistical peak for South Florida is August through October, with September the single most active month.
Perspective matters here. Most trips in those months are entirely unaffected by a storm. But two things are worth doing if you travel then: book accommodation with a flexible or free-cancellation policy, and take travel insurance that covers named-storm disruption. Note that many policies stop covering a storm once it is named, so buying after one appears on the map is too late.
If a system does approach, you will have days of warning. Follow the National Hurricane Center and local emergency management rather than social media, and take evacuation guidance for the barrier islands seriously — Miami Beach and Key Biscayne are the areas that get told to leave first.
King tides, which nobody warns you about
From roughly September into November, the highest tides of the year push salt water up through the storm drains in low-lying parts of Miami Beach and along the Brickell and downtown waterfront. Streets flood on clear, sunny days with no rain at all.
It is generally ankle-deep, short-lived and predictable from the tide tables. It is also genuinely disruptive if you have parked in the wrong place, and salt water is unkind to a rental car. If you are visiting in autumn, check the tide calendar and park on higher ground.
The water
Ocean temperatures sit around the low seventies in the depth of winter — swimmable for most visitors, chilly for locals — and rise into the mid and upper eighties by late summer. The bay side runs slightly warmer than the ocean.
Portuguese man o' war arrive mainly between November and April, pushed inshore by strong easterly winds; lifeguards fly a purple flag when they are around. Sargassum seaweed landings have been heaviest from late spring into summer in recent years, though the volume varies a lot year to year.
So when should you go?
For the best weather: February and March. Also the most expensive and most crowded.
For the best balance: late April and November. Warm water, low rainfall, prices off their peak, and the city is not queueing.
For the lowest prices: late August and September. You will be hot, you will be rained on most afternoons, and you will pay a fraction of the winter rate.
For art: early December, and book months ahead.
To avoid: the first week of December unless you are there for Art Basel, mid-March if you dislike crowds, and any week in which you are unwilling to change plans, if that week falls in September.
The events that move prices
Miami's calendar is lumpy, and a few dates change the cost of a hotel room across the whole county.
Early December — Art Basel Miami Beach, at the Miami Beach Convention Center, with Miami Art Week and a cluster of satellite fairs around it. The most expensive week of the year.
March — Carnaval Miami and the Calle Ocho Music Festival, the largest Hispanic street festival in the United States, filling fifteen blocks of Little Havana on a Sunday in mid-March. In the same month, a major professional tennis tournament at Hard Rock Stadium and a large electronic music festival downtown, both of which fill hotels.
February — the Coconut Grove Arts Festival over Presidents' Day weekend, and the Miami International Boat Show, which takes over a great deal of waterfront.
November — the Miami Book Fair at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus downtown, with a street fair across a weekend.
Dates shift year to year. Check the specific dates before you book, and if your trip is flexible, check them before you choose the week.
What to actually pack
Year round: high-SPF sunscreen and more of it than you think, because the sun here is stronger than most visitors expect and the water reflects it. Sunglasses. A refillable bottle.
Dry season, November to April: a light jacket or a jumper. Evenings in January can drop into the low sixties with a breeze off the water, and visitors who packed only for the beach spend those nights indoors. Dinner in Coral Gables and the Design District skews smarter than the beach does.
Wet season, May to October: a compact umbrella rather than a rain jacket, because a rain jacket in that humidity is unbearable. Quick-drying clothes. Insect repellent with DEET or picaridin, essential for anything in the Everglades and useful at dusk anywhere near water.
Everglades in any season: long sleeves, a hat, closed shoes, and more water than you plan to drink. There is almost no shade in that park.
If you are coming in autumn: waterproof shoes you do not mind soaking, for the king tide streets.
Last updated
Opening hours, ordinances and prices move with the season. We re-check this guide rather than rewrite it, and the date above is the last time someone did. How we research and correct.
