weather in October?

[MMlover]

We will be going this October for the first time. We normally go in summer (I'm a teacher.) Can anyone who has been in WDW at the end of October please tell me what we can expect weather-wise?? I looked online, and it says annual temps for Orlando can be in the 80s. I'd like to know what you wore during the day and then at night? I'm just wondering what to pack. We went once in late December, and we needed our winter jackets, so I know it can get cold, but I'm wondering about Oct. Would we need long pants?? We are from WI so we can handle the cold

[Drince88]

October is one of the 'swing' months as far as Florida weather goes.
One year, there were record highs on Saturday/Sunday and I was sweltering in shorts and a tank top, and on Tuesday there were record lows and I bought an extra sweatshirt and was doing whatever I could to stay warm.

GENERALLY in October I wear shorts and polo shirts/tshirts, though may pull out the jeans for a late evening. If I were planning now for packing in October, I'd have the jeans I wear on the plane, plus the sweatshirt I take on the plane (because you never know if the plane is going to be hot or cold in your section) - MAYBE another pair of jeans (that would be a weather-report based decision) and mostly shorts and short-sleeves. Maybe a sleeveless top/tank top if the weather report looks especially warm.

Last year in Oct/early Nov (I don't remember exactly when the trip was - whenever MouseAdventure was!) I MAY have gone to the parks one day in jeans, but was fooled by the weather forecast. My sister (who lives in Central Oregon) wore jeans more, but she's always been much quicker than I to put on long pants in general. USUALLY, I'm pretty early to put on a sweatshirt (4th of July in SW Washington, I'm usually the first to pull out the sweatshirt while we're outside doing fireworks/relaxing.)

[Goodnplenty]

Drince is correct. The weather can seesaw a little in Oct. I live here and I would say that I end up wearing shorts in the day and switching to jeans at night. A hoodie or sweatshirt is a nice choice because you can take them off and tie them around your waist if it warms up. In October you can still go swimming.

So I guess I would pack: shorts, jeans, hoodie, swimsuit.

GnP

[MMlover]

How's the humidity? Is it as bad as summer? What about rain? In summer, it usually rains a little every day or so...

[Drince88]

The humidity will be lower. But you may not recognize that it's lower coming from Wisconsin.
Generally, there's not the daily rain showers, which is nice.
It is still technically hurricane season, so 'tropical activity' could cause a day or more of yechy rainy weather.

[danyoung]

The only advice I can give other than the excellent info above is to NOT pack till right before your trip, and log in to a site like weather.com or accuweather.com and see what it's going to be like over the next few days. There's simply no way to predict this far out what it's going to be like at the end of October.

[nickjandrews]

It's central FL, so it will prolly rain at some point! When I lived in Tampa in 2004, I wore shorts outside in December working around the house, but also went to a Bucs game where it was freezing cold and we were wearing heavy jackets up until the game started. I would take the advice proffered above and be ready for hot or cool weather. But definitely take the Frogg Toggs for the rain, or pay $8 or whatever they get for those banana yellow Mickey ponchos these days.

[josephbandrews]

It's central FL, so it will prolly rain at some point! When I lived in Tampa in 2004, I wore shorts outside in December working around the house, but also went to a Bucs game where it was freezing cold and we were wearing heavy jackets up until the game started. I would take the advice proffered above and be ready for hot or cool weather. But definitely take the Frogg Toggs for the rain, or pay $8 or whatever they get for those banana yellow Mickey ponchos these days.

Go to Walmart/Target whatever and get a handful of the cheap Coleman brand ponchos from the camping section. They are usually around $1 each and can be thrown out after or refolded if they have a chance to dry.

Much better than paying buying there--especially if you don't feel like letting them dry and re-folding. I usually carry ~5 or 6 in my bag whenever I go. They also make great throw-a way's if someone doesn't want to get wet on Kali River Rapids...

I was there for Thanksgiving last year and the weather was perfect. No worries about getting wet on Kali and Splash Mnt...plenty warm to lay by the pool in the afternoon.

As Dan said, watch the weather a week out and prepare accordingly.