Best time to skydive in Cairns, by month and by hour

The best time to skydive in Cairns starts with the calendar of the tropics. Tourism Australia says Tropical North Queensland has a wet season from November to April, while the rest of the year is the dry season.¹ It describes the dry months as low in rain and full of sunshine, and as the busiest period for visitors.⁶ For a tandem, low rain and fewer cloud layers mean more jumps leave on time and at full height.

The wet season is not a closed season. Tourism Australia describes it as bringing heavy rains and tropical storms to Cairns, but showers come and go, and a wet month is not a month without jumps.⁷ Skydive Australia will still fly through broken cloud or a passing shower, but it grounds a load for a downpour, a gale or a thick, low ceiling.⁸ The difference between the seasons is the share of mornings that fall into each case.

Crowds follow the good weather. Tourism Australia notes that the dry season brings great weather and larger crowds.⁹ Skydive Australia accepts bookings from one day to six months ahead and strongly recommends one to two weeks of notice in the peak summer season.¹⁰ In practice that means booking early for the dry months and for school holidays, and keeping a spare morning later in your stay in case the first slot is moved.

Wind is the second filter after cloud. At Cairns Aero the average wind at 9am is lower than at 3pm in every month; in September, for example, the means are 13.9 km/h in the morning and 20.5 km/h in the afternoon.^14,15 Lighter wind at the door and under the canopy is the practical gain, and it is one reason Skydive Australia steers customers towards the earliest sessions of the day, whatever the month.³

That is why the operator's advice is so simple. Skydive Australia's advice is to take the earliest time available, which gives you the best chance of jumping, because conditions shift as the day goes on.³ It also decides on the weather only on the morning itself and tells customers not to trust the forecast, which it says can cost you a jump on a morning that turns out fine.¹⁶ Book early, turn up, and let the people on the drop zone decide.

The calmest mornings in the record are in the wet months, and the windiest afternoons come in the late dry season. In January the average 9am wind is 8.8 km/h; in September the 3pm average reaches 20.5 km/h.^14,15 It is the mix that matters: the dry season brings fewer clouds and more wind, the wet season less wind and more cloud. An early slot in the dry season takes the best of both.

The first light over the Coral Sea is the most photogenic moment of the day, and it is now a product. The listing for the jump sold on this site says a sunrise skydive is offered and that sunrise jumps are limited. If you want one, book it as early as you can and treat the date as fixed, because the number of places is small and the slot cannot move later in the morning without losing the point.

Sunrise times follow the seasons. Day-length figures for Cairns show about 13 hrs of daylight at mid-month in January and about 11.1 hrs in June, so first light arrives at a different hour through the year.^4,4 The month-by-month climate chart further up shows the hours without sun at mid-month, a quick guide to how early a sunrise load would leave in the month of your trip.

Early slots also carry the general morning advantage of lighter winds, according to the Bureau's averages above.^14,15 Pack a warm layer for a sunrise load, since even a tropical morning feels cold at the open door of a climbing plane, and ask at booking about the meeting time and the transfer, so you know exactly where to stand and when while the streets around you are still dark and quiet.