Évora sää — elokuu

August reads fine on paper and is fine — the nortada wind off the Atlantic keeps it from feeling like Seville. What the score can't tell you is that half the city is shut for holidays and every restaurant that stays open is booked. Go for the beach at Costa da Caparica, not the food.

Regulars are specific this region runs 30C-plus as the summer norm, even 40C not unheard of on a genuinely hot stretch, though locals themselves have been surprised by unusually cool mid-July spells in recent years that break from the old pattern. Our row backs that hot, genuinely dry read, 34.1C reading as a hot 34C, over 15.6C nights feeling 16C, with rain essentially absent, 2.8mm across just 1.1 days, and humidity down to 50 percent. Regulars are consistent evenings can carry a cooling breeze though summer nights generally stay warm enough that no extra layer is needed. Sun protection and steady hydration remain the standard advice for a genuinely intense midday sun. The record: 13.1 hours of sun, a 17.3 kph wind and AQI 39.

April here can already be very warm under a clear sky, and regulars are equally clear about the other half of the day: once the sun sets it turns cool and damp, so layers matter more than the daytime high suggests. Our row backs both halves - 19.7C reading as 18C, nights at 8.3C - and the board's mention of sudden rainy days shows up as 66mm across 9.9 days, unpredictable rather than constant. Their real recommendation is timing rather than packing: mid-April to mid-May is the best window for the Alentejo countryside, when the wildflowers around the Almendres stones and the cork groves are at their greenest, before the summer heat this region is also known for arrives. The record: humidity 70 percent, 10.8 hours of sun, a 16.8 kph wind and AQI 40.

Regulars warn that September in the Alentejo can still pass 30C, and they give a working threshold rather than an opinion: the heat here is dry, but anything over 33 to 35C takes the pleasure out of walking a town in the open sun. Some travellers change plans over it. They add a shape to the day that our row confirms exactly - evenings in this season are often hot while the early mornings are cool enough - because 29.9C days sit over 14.4C nights, a fifteen-degree swing at 57 percent humidity. Sightseeing early and late is not a preference here, it is the method. Rain is not a consideration: 26.6mm across 3.2 days. The record: 10.7 hours of sun, a 15.7 kph wind and AQI 36.

October in the Alentejo splits down the middle. Regulars give around 24C by day - our row says 24.5C - with nights turning properly cool, ours 12C, and showers or longer spells of rain to plan for; late October is when the cooler, wetter weather really sets in, and the west-facing coast takes the Atlantic head on while Evora inland is sheltered from the worst of it. The reward is emptiness: by late October the holiday season is finished and the small resort towns are already very quiet. Some visitors report October and November warmer and drier than they expected. Evora works as a base for driving the region rather than as a single stop. The record: 63.7mm across 8.6 precipitation days, humidity 66 percent, 8.8 hours of sun, a 15.2 kph wind and AQI 35.