Split sää — elokuu

August on Hvar is crowded and hot, and regulars split on whether that is a reason to come or to wait. The case against: 35C days turn up, several say September is simply the better month with the crowds gone and the sea still warm, and nobody recommends August for anything strenuous like a cycling holiday. The case for: the island empties in the middle of the day, so the bars and the town are surprisingly peaceful between late morning and late afternoon, and from about the 25th it noticeably quietens as the season winds down. Our row's 30.5C reads as 34C, over a 22.8C night. The record: 3.3 precipitation days carrying 31.1mm, 12.4 hours of sun and a 26.3C sea.

Regulars are consistent this counts as a genuine favorite month, late-month weather usually still warm enough for swimming while island tours keep running on their full summer schedule. Our row backs that warm, still-dry read, 27.3C reading as a hot 28C, over 20.4C nights, with rain light at 63mm across 6.2 days and humidity at 70 percent. Regulars are honest that year-to-year variation is real - some recent Septembers holding good weather straight through, others turning genuinely rainy and coolish by mid-month - so checking closer to the trip rather than trusting the seasonal average is the standard advice. The sea sits at a genuinely warm 23.9C, still comfortably swimmable. The record: 10.4 hours of sun, a 17.4 kph wind and AQI 42.

October here can be two different months and the board says so plainly: some years warm enough to swim anywhere along the coast, others cool and changeable and no use for swimming unless you are hardy. Our row lands on the better half, 21.8C over 16.2C with a sea still at 22.3C - above twenty being their own threshold for comfortable. Rain is 71mm across only 5.5 days. The change that actually alters a trip is the timetable rather than the weather: ferries move to the off-season schedule this month and the buses thin out with them, so the islands become quieter and harder to reach at the same time. Split itself stays open and busy into November. The record: humidity 75 percent, 8.8 hours of sun, an 18.1 kph wind and AQI 40.

April here is a shoulder month in the strict sense: easier than summer on both temperature and crowds, and not yet open. Regulars warn that it is not beach weather - our row gives 19.8C air over a 15.7C sea - that many restaurants wait for May, and, most usefully, that the boats are on a winter timetable. The fast catamaran down to Dubrovnik does not start until May, the Ancona crossing skips the first twenty days of the month, and the island services run a reduced pattern. So an April itinerary has to be built from what is actually sailing. Weather is decent at 45.4mm across 5.6 days and 11.1 hours of sun. The record: 12.9C nights, humidity 70 percent and a 19.3 kph wind.

Forum posters call December genuinely hit-or-miss on the Dalmatian coast - it could be a mild, sunny 15C day, or cold, rainy and windy; the coast's notorious 'bora' wind can turn nasty, with Split once recording the strongest bora ever measured at 176 km/h. Smaller coastal towns and villages get very quiet with many restaurants and hotels closed for the season, but Split itself, as Croatia's second-largest city and main ferry port, stays lively with people passing through regardless of season. The city does run Christmas market events and nativity displays like the rest of Europe, giving visitors something festive even on the grayer days.