Pinnacles Weather Month by Month

Weather here does not change how comfortable a visit is. It changes what the visit is: whether there is any shade to be had at all, whether the flowers are out, and whether the sky goes dark early enough to be worth staying for. Guided tours of the Pinnacles Desert run in every month, but they are not the same experience in every month.

What the weather does to a visit here

Three things, and each has a number behind it. First, you get no shade at all. The tallest pillars are up to 4 metres and nothing else in the plain is more than knee high, so whatever the temperature is, you are standing in it.

Second, the sea breeze is real and you will feel it. The mean 3 pm wind at the nearest coastal station is 29.3 km/h in January and 17.5 km/h in May. That breeze is why the coast runs about four degrees cooler than the station inland through summer, and why you want a hat that stays on.

Third, and least expected: the dark arrives at wildly different hours. Full astronomical twilight ends at 6:51 pm in June and at 9:00 pm in January. You are expected out of the park by 9 pm. That single pair of numbers decides whether your evening is a stargazing trip or a sunset one.

The Pinnacles month by month

Coastal figures are Bureau of Meteorology averages for Jurien Bay (Bureau of Meteorology station 009131), 50 km north. The inland column is Badgingarra Research Station (009037), 45 km inland, included because it shows what the same month does away from the sea breeze. Sunset and dark are computed for the desert itself.

January

Jurien Bay averages 30.1 °C by day and 7.3 mm of rain across the whole month. Forty-five kilometres inland the same month averages 34.7 °C. Sunset is 7:27 pm and the sky is not fully dark until nine, which is when the park expects you out. Book January for the sunset, not for the stars.

February

The warmest month on the coastal average, at 30.8 °C. Rain is 15.4 mm over about one day in thirty. Full dark arrives at 8:33 pm, half an hour earlier than January. There is no shade in the field, so the useful hours are the first two after sunrise and the last two before sunset.

March

Days still average 29.5 °C and nights drop to 16.8 °C. Rainfall is 14.8 mm across fewer than two rain days. Dark arrives at 7:58 pm. This is the first month of the year when an evening departure gets a real hour of dark sky inside the nine o’clock deadline.

April

Rain arrives properly: 29.1 mm over four and a half rain days, against 14.8 mm in March. The daytime average falls to 26.4 °C, which is comfortable walking weather. Sunset moves back to 6:01 pm and full dark to 7:20 pm, giving an evening tour about ninety minutes of observing.

May

Winter starts. Rainfall jumps to 74.1 mm over eight and a half days and the daytime average drops to 23.4 °C. The inland station is now cooler than the coast rather than hotter. Sunset is 5:34 pm and the sky is dark by 6:56 pm, which is two full hours before the park expects you out.

June

The shortest days of the year and the earliest dark: sunset at 5:26 pm, astronomical dark at 6:51 pm. Rainfall is 105.7 mm over eleven rain days, so a clear night is not a given. When it is clear, this is the best month here for the sky, with two hours of true dark inside the deadline.

July

The coolest and wettest month: 19.6 °C by day, 9.5 °C overnight, 112.2 mm of rain over thirteen rain days. Dark still arrives at 7:00 pm. The trade is plain — the darkest skies of the year sit behind the highest chance of cloud, and the refund window is how travellers handle it.

August

The wildflower window opens and runs to October. Rain is down to 82.4 mm over eleven days, the daytime average is 20.0 °C and dark arrives at 7:15 pm. Walking weather, flowers and an early dark sky in the same month, which no other part of the year manages.

September

The middle of the flowering, and the month that balances best. Rain halves to 42.3 mm over eight days, the daytime average is 21.4 °C, and nights are the coldest of the year at 9.9 °C. Dark arrives at 7:31 pm, so an evening departure still gets well over an hour of it.

October

The last of the flowers and the last of the easy walking. Rain drops to 26.1 mm over fewer than five days and the daytime average climbs to 23.4 °C. Full dark now waits until 7:52 pm, which leaves an evening departure a little over an hour before the park expects you gone.

November

Heat returns: 26.0 °C on the coast, 28.5 °C inland, with 16.9 mm of rain across three days. Sunset is 6:55 pm and dark not until 8:24 pm. The observing window is down to about half an hour, and the walking is better done early in the day than late.

December

The driest month at 6.0 mm and the longest days of the year at 14.2 hours. Inland the average maximum is 32.2 °C. Full dark does not arrive until 8:55 pm, five minutes before the park expects you out, so a December evening is a sunset trip with a short look at the sky.

The seasons, and which one you want

April to October is the walking half of the year. Coastal maximums sit between 19.6 °C and 26.4 °C, which is what you want on a shadeless sand plain. It is also the wet half: July brings 112.2 mm across thirteen rain days, against 6.0 mm in December.

Those two facts pull against each other, and the resolution is August to October. The rain is falling away, the temperature is still comfortable, and the heath is in flower. If you can pick your month, pick one of those three.

November to March is the dry half and the hot half. Do not plan a midday visit in it. Do plan an evening one — but know that in December and January the sky will not go dark before you are expected to leave. Annual rainfall is 529.0 mm across 69.2 rain days.

Best time of day

Take the last two hours of light, without much argument. Low sun across a flat sand plain throws every pillar’s shadow out behind it, and that is the photograph you came for. The first two hours after sunrise do the same thing from the other side, and you get the field to yourself.

What you want to avoid is the middle of a summer day. You get flat light and no shade at once. That is the hour the Discovery Centre exists for, and it closes at 4:30 pm — so make it your first stop, not your last.

Frequently asked questions

Does the rain stop a visit? Rarely. Even July averages thirteen rain days out of thirty-one, and the sealed drive works in any weather. What rain does affect is your stargazing, and that is what the twenty-four-hour refund window on most departures is for — if the forecast turns, you move the date.

Which month should you book for the Milky Way? Somewhere between April and September. Dark arrives between 6:51 pm and 7:31 pm across those months, which leaves real observing time inside the 9 pm deadline.

Do the tours run all year? Yes, all twelve months. What changes is the hour you are collected, and Pinnacles Tours shows the pickup arrangement for every departure before you book.

What the weather actually stops you doing is on the safety page, and things to do sets out which activities are worth timing to a season rather than an hour.