Meteo Palawan (Puerto Princesa) in maggio

The board calls May the end of summer - very hot, mostly sunny, the rainy season not really under way until June - and our column disagrees with the second half of that. May already reads 206.3mm across 25.5 days against April's 89.2mm, so by our data this is the first wet month rather than the last dry one. Their own description reconciles the two: the rain arrives as a thunderstorm lasting an hour or two, which does not stop the island hopping. The heat is not in dispute - 33.2C reading as 40C at 81.8 percent humidity, nights at 26.1C, and a sea at 30.5C offering no relief at all. It is also local high season, with Filipino holidaymakers as well as visitors. The record: 10.5 hours of sun and AQI 31.

Regulars are specific this month runs a real cycle - typically two to three days of heavy monsoon rain followed by two to three days of sunshine - rather than one continuous wet stretch, though an unlucky week or two with almost no rain relief isn't unheard of either. Our row backs that hot, genuinely wet read, 31.7C reading as a scorching 38C, over 25C nights, with a substantial 235.7mm of rain across over 27 days and humidity at 84 percent. Regulars are consistent boat tours to the famous lagoons can occasionally be cancelled entirely if a storm moves through, and that nobody can reliably forecast conditions more than a few days out. Regulars are honest this remains genuinely doable despite the rain risk, just wetter than the December-to-May stretch. The sea sits at a bath-warm 29.8C. The record: 8.8 hours of sun, a 12.7 kph wind and AQI 36.

January is the coolest month of the Palawan year, which regulars put around 25.5C on average, and it sits inside the dry season - though they warn the rains have been known to run into it. The thing that decides a trip is the amihan, the north-east trade wind that blows from December to March at fifteen to twenty knots: cool and dry and thoroughly pleasant ashore, and rough once you are on the water, which matters on an island where the sights are reached by boat. Our row puts the wind at 17.7 kph and the rain higher than the word dry suggests, at 148.3mm across 18.1 days under 31.3C that reads as 36C. The record: 24.5C nights, 9.5 hours of sun and a 28.1C sea.

April is the height of the Philippine summer and regulars do not soften it: hot, hotter still in the humidity, with the sun almost directly overhead at midday. Our row reads 33.2C as 39C and a 25.6C night as 31C, with the sea at 30.1C, among the warmest anywhere in this dataset - there is no cooling off here. December to May is the dry season, and the 15.9 precipitation days in our row spread 89.2mm between them, so under six millimetres a day. The crowd point is domestic: April is the school and college summer holiday across the Philippines, so it is busier than February, and Holy Week in particular is the week to avoid. Intense thunderstorms arrive as summer breaks in late May. The record: humidity 79 percent, 11.1 hours of sun and AQI 45.

March is one of the months Palawan regulars name first: the Philippine dry season runs December to May, island hopping is at its best, and March to May is when divers say visibility peaks. Their temperature expectation is 32 or 33C with humidity that pushes it towards 40C in feel, and two honest riders: outside the wet season does not mean no rain at all, and El Nido sits in open sea, so it is normally windy. Our own row is the reminder on the first point - 12.3 precipitation days but only 76mm between them, which is showers rather than rain days. The rest: 32.2C days that feel like 37C, 24.6C nights, 10.8 hours of sun and a 28.4C sea.