מזג האוויר במקארסקה בספטמבר

September is the month regulars recommend on this island and their reasoning is about lag: the crowds of June and July have gone but the sea is still carrying August's heat, so swimming is as good and sunbathing better for not being too hot. A sweater in the evening, they say, and certainly not a coat. Our row agrees on the sea at 24.5C against 25.5C days and 20.3C nights. It adds the thing the board does not discuss: 116.3mm of rain, which falls across only 8.5 days at fourteen millimetres each. That is the Adriatic September pattern - long fine spells broken by real storms - rather than the drizzle the total might suggest. The record: humidity 71 percent, 10.4 hours of sun and a 16.9 kph wind.

Croatia's forum describes January on the Dalmatian coast, Makarska included, as milder than the interior but still genuinely capable of freezing overnight, with the bura wind making a cold day feel considerably colder through windchill. Coastal snow is rare but does happen occasionally, and posters described the swing as wide - anywhere from around -5C on a bad night to an unusually mild 15C on a good day. Expect wet and windy stretches mixed with clear ones rather than a single consistent pattern for the whole month.

Forum posters call July genuinely hot, regularly above 30C, with the back half of the month singled out as the point where any hiking should shift to early morning or evening to avoid the worst heat. Swimming, by contrast, gets called glorious this time of year. July counts as peak season, though posters note the first half is somewhat more manageable than the crush of full August - one repeat visitor specifically contrasted a pleasant June trip against a July return that felt noticeably hotter and busier. For anyone finding the heat oppressive, posters suggest shifting to shaded activities like nearby caves and forest walks during the hottest midday hours.