Warroora and Ningaloo

Hi Gerard

In my opinion July/August is the best time of the year. Generally sunny and warm high 20’s to low 30’s. Depending on the season it can be quite windy and sometimes the northern edge of a strong cold front will bring some rain. All in all it’s usually very pleasant. Very few flies. It is always very busy at that time of the year and exceptionally so during school holidays. Water is warm ~24C. There are regulars who to the region every year at the time. Many with boats as the fishing offshore is good. We usually head there in July after school holidays. You should check prior to travelling as to the availability of camp sites. Many locations are quite solidly booked.

Enjoy your trip.

Cheers John

We were there in September.
We took the tinny off the trailer one afternoon ready for some serious fishing during the next week.
The next day, the wind came up from the west.
We never put the tinny in the water.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

The whale sharks are there in May usually.

The saying is that any month with an 'R ' in it is windy. That leaves May, June, July and August as the less windy period.

Having said that, one of the longtime caretakers, Rossco, said that December/January was a great time there.

Do your own research. Your idea of terrible may differ from others
Check out BOM site for average temps and go from there
There is a reason that so many go nth during the dry season.
Best time of year there for sure

Also look at Coral Bay. Expensive but beautiful and crowded

In September (2006) when we were there, the temperatures were beautiful, and the winds light when I launched the tinny, but that all changed very suddenly and the winds became quite strong and unrelenting day and night making boating impossible and very unpleasant on the beach with sand constantly blowing.
Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 motorhome

Hi Peter

My brother in-law, a teacher, visited Coral Bay every year for the July school holidays, during the 80’s and 90’s. He towed a 26’ boat from Perth.

He often complained that the wind was too strong to launch the boat. Not sure how often that occurred but I would guess 30% of the time.

We were last there in late July mid August 2018. Weather was magnificent. Swam, snorkelled and fished ( off the beach) every day for three weeks. Then a strong cold front came through with 20mm of rain. The wind turned westerly so we ran away to Marble Bar and Rudal River. The rain and wind followed us. It took another 2 weeks for the weather to improve.

That however is the worst experience we have had up there in 4 trips at similar times. In my original post I did say quite windy. Perhaps quite should have been very.

Cheers John

"The saying is that any month with an 'R ' in it is windy. That leaves May, June, July and August as the less windy period."
That's the first time I have heard that connected to wind. Every other time the "months with R in them" phrase was in relation to heat.

Peter,

You had me wondering if what I had always believed was true or not. I looked around on the internet and found many technical reports that didn't help me understand any better. However the following gave me reason to think that wind is less in the 'R' less months. The heat is certainly down in those months too, so perhaps both beliefs are correct.

- Fisheries Research Report No. 266, 2015

'Seasonal wind patterns around the Western Australian coastline and their application in fisheries analysis'

Examining in more detail these regional wind shifts with latitude, it is evident from the PVDs in Figure 3a to 3d that the winds between Learmonth and North Island are persistently from the south throughout the year, most strongly between spring and late autumn, with a weak south-easterly tendency during winter. The “bunching” of the vectors during the winter months is indicative of the more variable wind vectors in that season -- at Kalbarri, in particular, the monthly-averaged winds are virtually zero in June and July.

Fisheries Report

Not only south of Exmouth. Have been blown away at 80 Mile Beach in August.

Good you mentioned that eclipse. Was talking to an astronomical person a month or so ago and they are thinking maybe 20,000 or more people will be heading for Exmouth and surrounds.

People come from all over the world for these events and as I understand it the area of totality on land is going to be very small.

Try this site for the path of totality.
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/HSE_2023_GoogleMapFull.html?Lat=-22.07873&Lng=114.11425&Zoom=8&LC=1

All that travel for 62 seconds of totality. LOL Of course there's more of WA to see on the way there and back. If it had been this year with COVID.!! Was in USA in 2017 for a total and got to try some Moose Drool to celebrate. So it should be a lot of fun on 20th April 2023......... W

Hope Covid isn't an issue then . According to my informant there will likely be heaps of cruise ships there.

Hope you can make it.

I guess that in 3 years the Ruby Princess will be long forgotten and cruising and covid won't be linked.
20,000 for the TSE sounds like a lot . Exmouth is about as far from the US or Europe as you can get for moneyed travellers to visit Oz for a fortnight and see the sky action. . Cruise ships could just stay at sea further north along the eclipse track and get a few extra seconds. All part of the fun LOL....W