Budva sää — kesäkuu

The end of June is where Budva's high season starts: everything open, the beaches busy but not yet July-busy, and the coast filling from about the 10th when the Montenegrin school year ends. The forum's weather description is days a little above 30C with coastal nights of 20 to 23C, and rain that announces itself - two or three hours of heavy downpour and then clear sky again, perhaps twice across a visit. Sea temperatures run 23 to 24C and shift with the current from one day to the next. One thing worth knowing before you pack: the beaches here are pebble rather than sand. The record: 28.6C days that feel like 33C, 20.2C nights, 6.5 precipitation days carrying 49.3mm and 13 hours of sun.

Regulars are specific this remains the liveliest place in the entire country through the first half of the month, keeping that pace right through to the end of October in years when the weather cooperates. Our row backs that mild, genuinely wet read, 22.6C over 15.1C nights, with a substantial 167.1mm of rain across 8.5 days and humidity at 77 percent. Regulars are consistent a sunny day here can feel pleasantly warm while a rainy or windy one turns distinctly cool, layers - trousers, a t-shirt or light long sleeve, a fleece and a light waterproof jacket - the standard advice rather than packing for one extreme or the other. The sea sits at a warm 23.2C, holding up well this late in the season. The record: 8.4 hours of sun, a 9.8 kph wind and AQI 37.

Regulars describe May here as warm and comfortable for everything except the one thing beach towns are usually for: the sea stays chilly, around 18.8C on average, and even the record May reading only reached 22C. Our column agrees closely at 19.3C, matching the board's temperature of about 25C by day and 15 to 18C at night almost exactly to our 23.4C over 15.2C. Rain is real at 129.9mm across 10 days. The town itself is the quiet compensation - many seasonal bars and restaurants do not open until the last week of the month, so early May is crowd-free even by this coast's modest standards, and a second-half visit is the better bet for both a swim and a livelier evening. The record: humidity 75 percent, 11.4 hours of sun, a 9.9 kph wind and AQI 44.

September here is a month with a start date attached. Regulars advise against arriving before the 10th, some say the 15th, because until then the heat and the crowds are still August's; after that the party crowd has gone, the beaches are usable all day because the sun has lost its edge, and the sea is still 23 to 25C. Our row gives 24.3C, so the swimming holds. The figure they never mention is rain: 163.4mm, which falls across only 8.2 days at twenty millimetres apiece. That is the heaviest per-day rainfall in this batch and it means storms rather than showers - on the days it rains here, it rains properly. The record: 27C over 19.3C nights, 10.3 hours of sun and a 9.8 kph wind.

Late July into early August is peak on this coast in both senses, and regulars are blunt about the heat being inevitable and the beaches as occupied as Italy's. Our row gives 31.4C reading as 35C, and the reason it feels like that is the stillness - 9.5 kph is among the lightest winds anywhere in this collection, so there is nothing to take the edge off. The Adriatic is the compensation at 26.6C, tame and warm enough to be in for hours, and rain is a formality at 46.5mm across 5.2 precipitation days. For space rather than scenery they point along to Jaz; for the same coast quieter, June or September. The record: 23C nights, humidity 68 percent, 12.4 hours of sun and AQI 46.