Weekly note
Block Island
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Photo by Timothy J. Quill, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Best time to visit Block Island

United States · North America

All twelve months scored on daily temperature, rainfall, humidity and holiday crowding.

The year in Block Island

Tap a month for its page

  1. Block Island in January: avoid
  2. Block Island in February: avoid
  3. Block Island in March: ok
  4. Block Island in April: ok
  5. Block Island in May: ok
  6. Block Island in June: ok, busy
  7. Block Island in July: ok, busy
  8. Block Island in August: sweet spot, busy
  9. Block Island in September: sweet spot
  10. Block Island in October: sweet spot
  11. Block Island in November: ok
  12. Block Island in December: ok
  • Sweet spot
  • Good
  • OK
  • Avoid
  • Busy
Go in Aug–Oct — these months score within a whisker of each other; 21C max, 8 rainy days. Jun is the next best.

Month by month

MonthMax °CRain days HumiditySun h/day VerdictWhy
Jan 5° 9d 72% 6.2h avoid bitter cold: 5C daily max
Feb 5° 9d 73% 6.8h avoid bitter cold: 5C daily max
Mar 6° 9d 74% 8.3h ok 6C max, 9 rainy days
Apr 9° 10d 79% 8.9h ok 9C max, 10 rainy days
May 13° 9d 84% 10.0h ok 13C max, 9 rainy days
Jun 18° 7d 87% 11.6h okbusy busier than usual
Jul 22° 7d 88% 11.7h okbusy busier than usual
Aug 23° 7d 85% 11.2h sweet spot busy busier than usual
Sep 21° 8d 81% 9.2h sweet spot 21C max, 8 rainy days
Oct 17° 9d 76% 8.0h sweet spot 17C max, 9 rainy days
Nov 12° 8d 69% 6.8h ok 12C max, 8 rainy days
Dec 8° 9d 72% 5.8h ok 8C max, 9 rainy days

Rain days are the days with at least 1 mm of rain, as a weather station counts them.

Weather read at New Shoreham, by Old Harbor: ten years of ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalysis, through Open-Meteo's open data.

A busy month is a crowded one, not a bad one — usually it is crowded because the weather is good. It is flagged rather than scored down, and crowds alone never make a month “avoid”: that is reserved for weather worth skipping.

How busy it gets

Busiest from June to August; quietest from October to April.

Then and now

Block Island's October days now average 17.1°C, 2.0°C warmer than in 1981–1990. 6 of 12 months are clearly warmer.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
1981–903.0°3.6°5.3°8.8°13.3°18.4°22.1°22.2°19.5°15.2°11.2°6.3°
2017–264.8°4.9°6.3°9.1°13.0°18.0°22.3°22.7°20.6°17.1°12.4°7.7°
Change+1.8°+1.3°+1.0°+0.2°-0.3°-0.4°+0.2°+0.4°+1.1°+2.0°+1.1°+1.4°

The average daily high, month by month, for the nearest ERA5 grid cell. Bold is a clear change; grey is within the ordinary spread between years. Every destination, ranked.

Getting there

Fly into Providence/Warwick (PVD), then drive. The flights under Where to book are to Providence/Warwick.

The drive from each airport is the road's, from openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT: typical, not a schedule.

How far Block Island is depends on where you set off from — the months above do not.

Before you go

Type A and B plugs at 120 V. Drives on the right. The currency is the United states dollar. No UK Foreign Office advice against travel. Everything for United States: cost of living, languages, emergency numbers and health.

Being there

On arrival

  • Paying — Cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay work almost everywhere, though a few small places take cash only. Keep some $1 and $5 notes for tips; Venmo and PayPal are for locals.
  • UPI, for visitors from India — Not accepted for paying here; bring a card that works abroad.
  • Tipping — Expected: 15–20% in sit-down restaurants (18–20% is standard in New York) and 10–20% for taxi, Uber and Lyft drivers. Large groups may find it already on the bill.

Getting around Block Island

  • Apps — Rides: Lyft, Uber. Maps: Google Maps, Apple Maps. Messages: Text messages (SMS), WhatsApp. In San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami and some other cities you can also book a driverless Waymo in its own app.

Most areas of Block Island are easily within walking distance of each other but there are plenty of other modes of transportation. If you prefer to travel by car you can flag down a taxi or rent one on the island. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Block Island, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Help

  • Emergency — 911 (any emergency).
    TravelCharika is not an emergency service: we cannot call for help or send anyone. Numbers can change; if one fails, ask someone local or your hotel.

Put together by hand from the sources listed, checked 7 October 2026. Apps, cards and rules change, so check before you rely on one.

Sources (50)

Block Island in pictures

What Block Island is like

During the winter months Block Island is the very picture of a sleepy, seaside New England town, with a local population of around 900 people. In summer, the island's population explodes to nearly 10,000 at any given time, and many thousands more on busy weekends or holidays. More on Wikivoyage

Worth seeing
There are many different sights to see around the island during the summer. All you need is a gorgeous summer day and a pair of walking shoes in order to enjoy all of the sights that Block Island has to offer. More on Wikivoyage
Worth doing
Although Block Island mainly consists of 17 miles (27 km) of beachy shore there is still plenty to do: Beaches. The seashore is everywhere. More on Wikivoyage
Getting in
Block Island Ferry. Departs year round and daily from the village of Point Judith, in Narragansett. More on Wikivoyage
Staying safe
Block Island is by and large a very safe locale, but as with any place there are certain precautions you can and should take to stay out of harm's way. More on Wikivoyage

From the Wikivoyage article on Block Island, written by travellers and licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; the full article has far more. The numbers above are measured; this is experience.

Around Block Island

Also in United States

Nearby

Kind of place

Block Island is in United States, North America. Distances are great-circle, so a short one can still be a long way round.

Links marked Ad pay us a commission if you book through one, at no extra cost to you. That does not affect the scores on this page, which are computed from climate and holiday data before any link is built.