Climate averages 1991–2020

Mackay weather
in January.

A hot, very wet month: the warmest and the 11th driest of the year.

Long-term climate patterns, not a forecast for a particular trip.

Average high 28.2°C Daytime mean, January

Average low 24.5°C Night-time mean, January

Rainfall 212 mm 16 days with ≥1 mm

Daylight 13 h Sunrise to sunset, per day

January is a hot month in Mackay: daytime highs average 28.2°C and nights cool to about 24.5°C. By daytime temperature it is the warmest month of the year.

Expect about 212 mm of rain on roughly 16 days, which makes January a very wet month (the 11th driest of the 12 months). Daylight, from sunrise to sunset, lasts about 13 h 16 min on an average January day.

The nearest other city in this atlas is Rockhampton (283 km away). In January its highs average 30.8°C, 2.7°C warmer than Mackay, with 99 mm of rain.

Among the 32 cities listed in Australia, Mackay ranks 13th of 32 for the warmest January highs and 30th of 32 for the driest January (rainfall, lowest first). The mean January high of those 32 cities is 27.2°C; Mackay is 0.9°C warmer than that mean.

From January to February, average highs fall by 0.1°C to 28.1°C, and monthly rainfall rises from 212 mm to 225 mm.

The annual picture

January in context

30-year average

Average highAverage low°C

Monthly rainfall

Average total · mm

Averages from hourly ERA5 reanalysis data. Actual weather varies from year to year. How these numbers are calculated

Every month, side by side

Mackay climate table

1991–2020

Monthly climate averages for Mackay, 1991–2020
Month	Average highHigh / low	Average low	Rainfall mm/month	Rain days ≥1 mm/day	Daylight hours/dayDaylight h/day
January, selected	28.2°C24.5°C	24.5°C	212	15.9	13.313 h
February	28.1°C24.5°C	24.5°C	225	17.4	12.813 h
March	27.3°C23.8°C	23.8°C	171	15.2	12.212 h
April	25.7°C22.0°C	22.0°C	89	13.0	11.612 h
May	23.7°C19.4°C	19.4°C	54	10.6	11.111 h
June	21.7°C17.0°C	17.0°C	43	7.8	10.911 h
July	21.1°C15.8°C	15.8°C	32	4.3	11.011 h
August	21.8°C16.4°C	16.4°C	25	4.3	11.411 h
September	23.8°C18.8°C	18.8°C	16	3.5	12.012 h
October	25.5°C21.1°C	21.1°C	34	5.9	12.613 h
November	26.8°C22.8°C	22.8°C	64	8.3	13.113 h
December	28.0°C24.1°C	24.1°C	117	11.6	13.413 h

Rainfall is the average of the 30 separate monthly totals. A rain day is a local calendar day with at least 1 mm of precipitation. Daylight is the calculated sunrise-to-sunset length, not measured sunshine.

Compare places

January in nearby cities

Distance from Mackay

Read the numbers correctly

Climate, not a promise.

These patterns help compare months. They cannot tell you the weather on a specific day of your trip.

Sources, method and limits

How these numbers are made (what the highs, lows and rain days mean, the sources and the model cell used for Mackay) is explained once on the Mackay year overview and on the Sources, method and limits page.