Airlie Beach Weather In August

August, just like July, is a wonderful playground for both humans and sea animals. August gives us some of the best chances to see dolphins, manta rays and whales.

TEMPERATURE

In August, Airlie Beach and The Whitsundays are what the locals refer to as ‘a bit cold’. This means temperatures around 24 degrees in the day and at night, it will get down below 19 degrees.

In August, being winter, we strongly recommend you take a decent jumper with you if heading out on the water. If you are just hanging around Airlie Beach itself, then a t-shirt should be fine.

This is normally the time of year that we as locals start getting called ‘sooks’ by our friends from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Cool for them is cold to us.

RAIN

August is one of the driest months in Airlie Beach and just like most other months, the majority of the rain we do get falls at night.

It would be really out of character if the weather gods decided to send us some rain here in August.

WIND

Trade winds blow from the south-east through The Whitsundays in winter and can vary in strength. The average wind forecast in August will normally indicate 15-20 knots south-east.

This might be a lot of wind on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, but here we have 74 islands to hide behind. It’s not until we see 25-30 knots that we consider it to be windy.

SEA CONDITIONS

August is the last month of our whale season and there should still be plenty of them to see. Sometimes they do stretch out further into Septemeber. August whale sightings will mostly be the big Humpback bulls and chances are they will be breaching regularly.

The swell in The Whitsundays never exceeds 1.5 meters, so spotting these fantastic creatures from quite a distance away is easy. Luckily, The Whitsundays has many narrow passages which make it very common to find yourself less than 100 meters from these giants.

airlie beach weather in august whales

There is no dedicated whale watching boats in The Whitsundays, but we see them all the time on Thundercat.

Thundercat was specifically built to be stable and comfortable all year round, no matter what the weather throws our way. Click here to check it out.

thundercat whitsundays

SO SHOULD YOU VISIT AIRLIE BEACH IN August?

We honestly couldn’t recommend August in Airlie Beach highly enough. If the whales are not your cup of tea, then perhaps relaxing by a pool in the warm sun sipping a cocktail is. Whatever you are into, August has it all.

Why not come along and see some whales on our daily runs to Whitehaven Beach.