Meteo Benidorm (Costa Blanca) in marzo

Regulars are direct that this month means Las Fallas, the mid-March festival Lonely Planet has ranked the second-best city festival in the world, packing the city with fireworks and crowds around March 15-19 specifically - worth building any visit around rather than being surprised by. Our row backs the mild, still-chilly-at-night read, 19.5C over 9C nights feeling 6C, with 67.7mm of rain across 8.4 days. Regulars describe days as bright and sunny but not properly hot, with evenings nippy enough that a real jacket is standard rather than optional, and the odd evening shower during the festival itself. The sea stays cold at 14.7C, not swimming weather yet. The record: humidity 67 percent, 9.3 hours of sun, a 19 kph wind and AQI 40.

Regulars are specific mid-month stays genuinely lovely, not the scorching heat of summer but still warm enough for sunbathing and a swim in the sea most days. Our row backs that warm, still-mild read, 24.4C reading as a hot 25C, over 17.2C nights, with 55.5mm of rain across 6.9 days and humidity at 74 percent. Regulars are consistent nights cool down noticeably more by the back half of the month, storms passing through more likely the later a trip lands, though this counts outside official summer season and stays genuinely unpredictable either way. The sea sits at a warm, swimmable 22.8C. The record: 9.5 hours of sun, a 15.8 kph wind and AQI 44.

The May question on this board is always whether you can swim, and the answers split. Some report plenty of people in the water; others say the sea is too cold and the unheated pools worse - one regular puts it that the pools do not hold their heat until nearly the end of June, which makes a heated pool the thing to check before booking. Our columns run warmer than their recollection on both counts: they remember about 17C water and 21C days, we read 20.2C and 24.3C, so the answer probably sits between the two and the pool advice holds either way. Rain is 39.5mm across 6.3 days, and their description of it is quick storms with sun afterwards. Nights are 15.4C. The record: humidity 66 percent, 12.6 hours of sun and AQI 49.

September here keeps the heat and loses the humidity, with days still reaching 28C - our row's average high exactly - and a sea regulars put around 23C where we read 26.8C. They are frank about the rain: there is a fair amount, and some of it arrives as a gota fria, the cold drop that can flood the place in hours rather than drizzle over days. Our 66mm across 8 days is eight millimetres apiece, which is the shape of that. On crowds, the resort stays busy but changes character in the last fortnight - the stag and hen groups gone, the children back at school, and more Spanish visitors about. The record: 20.8C nights, humidity 73 percent and 10.8 hours of sun.

August in Benidorm is the month regulars describe as too hot to sit on a terrace, quoting days that touch 40C; our row's 32.2C is the average those spikes sit above, reading as 35C. What is more useful is who is here. August is the Spanish month: the schools are off, Spanish families take over, and the old town is where they go - so the British bars and clubs are quiet, there are no stags or hens, and the atmosphere is a family one. Hotels sell out on weekly and fortnightly bookings. Rain is not a factor at 17.1mm across 3.7 days, and the Mediterranean is 29C, the warmest sea on any European row here. The record: 23.6C nights, humidity 64 percent, 12.2 hours of sun and AQI 52.