Været i Gili Trawangan (Gili Islands) i februar

Forum posters are direct that February sits at the prime, not the tail end, of Bali's wet season - hot, very humid, with downpours a real daily possibility and sunsets a genuine hit or miss. Posters do note Nusa Penida itself tends to run somewhat drier than mainland Bali at the same time of year, though still squarely within the wet season overall. The bigger practical concern posters raise isn't the rain itself but sea state: crossings and water activities depend on cooperating conditions, and the strait can turn genuinely choppy and unpredictable this time of year, sometimes disrupting ferry schedules and boat trips more than the rain does. Water temperatures for diving are reported around 28C with occasional cooler upwells to around 25.5C.

Regulars are specific this island sits close enough to the equator that temperatures barely shift year to year, the wind instead doing the real work of cooling things down from August through October, when humidity also runs at its yearly minimum. Our row backs that hot, genuinely wet read, 30.3C reading as a scorching 36C, over 25.5C nights feeling 29C, with 56.3mm of rain across 11.2 days and humidity at 79 percent. Regulars are honest this counts as the possible start of the rainy season, capable of affecting dive visibility, though some visitors specifically report getting through the month without rain and without excessive humidity. June through late September or early October generally reads as the more reliable stretch by local consensus. The sea sits at a bath-warm 29.1C. The record: 11.3 hours of sun, a 21.7 kph wind and AQI 56.

Regulars place the wet season's end around March or April, putting this month cleanly into the drier, more settled stretch that follows. Our row backs that placement, 48.2mm of rain across 11.6 days - a real but comparatively light total - alongside real heat, 29.7C reading as a hot 36C at 81.5 percent humidity, over 25.4C nights. The island itself carries no cars or motorbikes, so a hot, humid day here is navigated on foot, bicycle or by the horse-drawn cidomo rather than any motorized transport, worth factoring into how the heat actually gets experienced. The sea holds a very warm 29.6C. The record: 10.6 hours of sun, a 14 kph wind and AQI 45.

June opens the stretch regulars name as the best of the year here - June through to late September or early October - and it sits in front of the part that fills up, because July and August are peak season and always busy. So this is the month that gets the dry-season water without the dry-season crowd, and the reports that come back from mid-June are about clear water and turtles rather than queues. Our row supports the water and qualifies the dryness: 39.4mm spread across 10.3 days is four millimetres a day, showers rather than weather. The sea is 28.8C under days of 29.3C that read as 35C at 81 percent humidity. The record: 10.5 hours of sun, a 15.2 kph wind and AQI 44.

August and September are the driest months and the ones regulars name, and our row agrees at 25.9mm across 6.2 precipitation days. Their caveats are the useful part. Months without rain leave the island hot and dusty, and the dry season is also the burning season, so expect some haze - our AQI 46 is mild but not nothing. The crossing deserves planning: the sea here is calm in the morning and can turn rough by the afternoon, so take the early boat in both directions. And the island is packed now, though the high season winds down by the end of the month. Their 'low humidity' is about rainfall rather than the air, which our row puts at 78 percent with 29.9C reading as 35C. The record: 24.6C nights and a 27.9C sea.