Best time to hike the Sunshine Coast Trail
Best: July–September. Also good: May–June and October.
The Sunshine Coast Trail is 166 km long, in 12 stages. Below is the average weather for every month at about 274 m, the middle height of the trail (6–1,288 m), from 10 years of daily data (2015–2024).
Weather month by month
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Rain mm | Rain days | Daylight h | Snow cm |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 4° | 0° | 222 | 20 | 8.5 | 17 |
| February | 4° | −1° | 123 | 17 | 10.0 | 19 |
| March | 7° | 2° | 130 | 18 | 11.7 | 6 |
| April | 10° | 4° | 103 | 16 | 13.7 | 0 |
| May | 17° | 9° | 61 | 12 | 15.4 | 0 |
| June | 20° | 12° | 78 | 15 | 16.3 | 0 |
| July | 23° | 14° | 56 | 13 | 15.9 | 0 |
| August | 23° | 15° | 61 | 12 | 14.5 | 0 |
| September | 18° | 11° | 110 | 15 | 12.5 | 0 |
| October | 13° | 7° | 164 | 18 | 10.6 | 0 |
| November | 7° | 3° | 225 | 21 | 8.9 | 7 |
| December | 4° | −1° | 202 | 20 | 8.1 | 27 |
Higher up it is colder: about 6 °C less for every 1,000 m of height. The highest point of the trail is 1,288 m.
Season notes from our guide
The main season is late May to early October. qPAWS says the weather is driest from May to September. In early summer snow can still lie on Tin Hat and Mount Troubridge, and by August some streams dry up, so carry more water on the high sections. Spring and autumn are wet. In winter the low coastal sections stay walkable, but the mountain huts are snowshoe destinations and the long thru-hike is not practical.
Stages, map, elevation profile, places to stay and emergency help, free.
Read the full Sunshine Coast Trail guideHike it with Outest
Offline maps, stages and places to stay on your phone.
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Weather: NASA POWER (MERRA-2 reanalysis), daily values 2015–2024 near 49.98, -124.41, adjusted to 274 m. Rain days: days with at least 1 mm. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th of the month.