Cuaca Buul di Mei

Regulars call April and May the hottest and driest stretch of the Bohol year and the best time for the beach - calm water, thousands of dolphins offshore - while acknowledging May is the turn into the rains. Our row disagrees hard, as it did in February: 271.6mm across 26.8 precipitation days, ten millimetres on each. Their own description is the only reconciliation on offer and it is worth having: a heavy downpour for an hour is likely, usually late in the afternoon, and in the tropics that is a relief rather than a ruined day. Heat is not in dispute - 30.8C over 25.4C reads as 37C and 31C at 84 percent humidity, with a 29.7C sea. The record: 10.7 hours of sun, a 12.4 kph wind and AQI 31.

Regulars are honest that experiences here vary more than the general Philippines reputation for good January weather suggests, one visitor specifically reporting genuinely bad, rainy, cloudy conditions throughout their Bohol trip while the wider region stayed pleasant. Our row backs that warm, genuinely wet read, 28.2C reading as a hot 33C, over 24C nights feeling 28C, with a substantial 267.8mm of rain across 26.9 days and humidity at 87 percent. Regulars are consistent this counts as the coldest month of the year here even so, the first two weeks in particular capable of dropping toward 16C at night, temperatures reliably rising again by February and March. A real, sustained rainy stretch spanning parts of December and January has also been reported specifically around Bohol and nearby Malapascua. The sea sits at a warm, swimmable 27.9C. The record: 9.1 hours of sun, a 17.6 kph wind and AQI 30.

November is still the rainy season here, and regulars are careful to say what that does and does not mean: it does not rain all day every day, most likely short sharp showers from mid-afternoon, followed sometimes by several days of uninterrupted sun. Our row backs the frequency rather than the drama - 277.2mm across 27.8 days, which is heavy downpours with thunder rather than a steady drizzle, the Visayas pattern. Air is 29.1C reading as 35C at 88.7 percent humidity, over 24.6C nights, with a 29.6C sea. The dry season proper starts in December, and their honest trade-off is fewer tourists now against the odd rained-out afternoon. The Chocolate Hills and the river cruise both run regardless of rain. The record: 9.4 hours of sun, a 14.6 kph wind and AQI 27.

Regulars call February one of Bohol's dry months - outside typhoon season, warm sunny days with occasional rain, and no high-season crowds. Our row disagrees more sharply than anywhere else in this collection: 170.7mm across 21.7 precipitation days at 85 percent humidity, about eight millimetres on each wet day. Their own caveat is the reconciliation: Philippine weather is unpredictable and the province does not share it, so one side of the island can be sunny while the other is not. The Chocolate Hills give the month a colour test - January to April is when they are brown, and by May the rain has turned them green, though a wet day raises mist that hides the far ones. The record: 28.3C over 23.8C reading as 33C, 9.9 hours of sun, a 27.6C sea and AQI 29.

April and May are the months Bohol regulars name for the beach: the hottest and driest of the year, the sea at its calmest, and dolphins off Panglao in numbers. Our row agrees on dry in a way that needs translating - 136.2mm over 18.8 precipitation days is the lowest of Bohol's twelve months, on an island whose wettest carry more than twice that. On heat they are less comforting: April feels hotter than the thermometer says because of the humidity, and after a long hot summer the Chocolate Hills go properly brown. The 38 to 40C figures that circulate on the forum belong to exceptional years - the normal here is 30.6C feeling like 36C. The record: 24.9C nights, 10.9 hours of sun and a 28.9C sea.