What is the best month to visit Amelia Island?
Key facts
October, if you want to swim. It averages 80.1°F days, a 76.0°F ocean and only about 5 wet days, with the summer crowds gone. April has the best air of the year and the least rain, but the ocean is still 71.2°F — warm days, cold water.
There is no single answer, because the air and the water peak two months apart. Pick by what you actually want.
If you want to swim: October
76.0°F water, 80.1°F air, humidity broken, about 5.2 wet days, and the crowds gone after Labor Day. The only asterisk is that hurricane season runs to 30 November.
If you want the best weather to be outside in: April
The driest month of the year at 3.03 inches, 77.4°F afternoons, no humidity and no biting insects yet. The trails, the fort and the kayak creeks are all at their peak. The ocean, at 71.2°F, is not.
If you want the island to yourself: January or February
64.3°F and 66.6°F afternoons, the lowest demand of the year, and clear bright days. Fort Clinch and the Greenway are at their most pleasant. The sea bottoms out at 57.9°F, so this is a walking and shelling beach, not a swimming one.
If you want the warmest water: August
84.6°F, the warmest of the year — but 89.5°F air, 6.39 inches of rain across about 9.7 wet days, and the statistical peak of hurricane season a fortnight away.
The month to think twice about
September is the best-value month on paper — 82.4°F water, thin crowds, big rate drops after Labor Day — and it is also the wettest month of the year and the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season. Plenty of people take that trade knowingly. Take it with a refundable rate.
Every figure here is a NOAA 1991–2020 normal for the station on the island itself, not the airport 28 km inland. The full table is on our weather by month page.
Where to go next
More on planning a trip
What backs this answer: NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 climate normals, station USC00082944 (Fernandina Beach, FL); ocean temperatures from NOAA CO-OPS station 8720218. See src/data/climate.json.
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Frequently asked questions
- What is the best month to visit Amelia Island?
- October, if you want to swim. It averages 80.1°F days, a 76.0°F ocean and only about 5 wet days, with the summer crowds gone. April has the best air of the year and the least rain, but the ocean is still 71.2°F — warm days, cold water.