Været i Tbilisi i september

September is harvest and it is glorious — 26°C, dry, the wine regions two hours east at their busiest. Summer here is a 35°C valley trap; the score is right to mark it down.

Regulars are consistent that although this counts as the first month of summer here, the real heat is still two months off, with this stretch instead capable of warm, sunny days mixed with the occasional surprisingly cool one, plus brief but genuinely heavy downpours that pass through fast. Our row backs that hot-by-day, still-showery read, 29.5C reading as a hot 31C, over 18.2C nights, with 66.2mm of rain across 11.2 days and humidity at 67 percent. Regulars are specific that T-shirts and shorts work fine for the lowland cities generally, Tbilisi included, though a light rain layer is worth having on hand given how quickly a downpour can arrive. The record: 12.2 hours of sun, an 11.7 kph wind and AQI 49.

Regulars describe mostly sunny, mild spring days in the city itself, with mornings and evenings chilly enough for a jacket but nothing close to freezing, alongside occasional short rain that can occasionally stretch across a day or two. Our row backs the mild-but-damp read, 19.3C over 8.9C nights, with a real 89.7mm of rain across 13.7 days and a trace of leftover snow, 0.8cm. Regulars are specific that this mildness doesn't extend to the mountains - Gudauri and Kazbegi still hold real snow and cold this month even while the lowlands around Tbilisi and Mtskheta stay comfortable in just a jacket or light rain coat. The record: humidity 72 percent, 9.6 hours of sun, a 13.1 kph wind and AQI 45.

October is the cooling-down month here, which regulars put at 16 to 24C by day, often wet enough to want an umbrella, and quiet enough to be ideal for sightseeing. Our row reads 19.6C over 10.9C with 56.4mm across 8.5 days. What gives the month its date is the harvest: the Kakheti grape picking starts in mid-September and finishes around the 15th of October, so the first fortnight can still be spent among the presses and the last cannot. The colour comes with it, on the Gombori pass road towards Telavi and up in Racha. The record: humidity 74 percent, 7.9 hours of sun, a trace of snow on the books and AQI 35.

May is the month most Georgia regulars name first - everything is green, the mountains still hold snow, and the country is at its most photogenic - with the honest qualification that this is also when it rains. Our row carries 126.9mm across 16 precipitation days, the wettest month of the Tbilisi year, and their own estimate of five or six rainy days in the month is a fair description of how it actually lands, sporadic rather than continuous. Late May is the better half: fewer wet days, deeper green, flowers out. Rain does not close the roads to Svaneti or Kazbegi. The record: 23.7C days, 13.3C nights, humidity 73 percent and 10.3 hours of sun.