Været i Tenerife (Canary Islands) i juli

Regulars put a number on the calima here: the odds of one are about ten times higher from mid-July to mid-August than in mid-June or mid-September. What arrives varies - sometimes only warmer air and a haze of fine sand, sometimes a day that goes dark, blows like a gale and sandblasts the beach. The island's other division matters as much. The north is five to ten degrees cooler and far wetter, green because of it, with morning cloud forming as moisture rises off the hillsides; the south is drier and sunnier. Our southern-weighted row reads 28.5C over 20.8C with 0.5mm of rain, a 23.1 kph wind and a 24.3C sea. The record: humidity 66 percent, 12.7 hours of sun and AQI 35.

Regulars are consistent this is genuinely one of the best months here, warm by day, comfortable by evening, and unlike many destinations this island doesn't really have an off-season - restaurants and attractions stay open and running rather than shutting down for the shoulder months. Our row backs the warm, dry read, 27.7C reading as a hot 31C, over 20.4C nights, with rain minimal at 9.8mm across just 1 day. Regulars do flag the occasional very windy day, though never lasting more than a day at a time, as the one real weather wildcard worth planning around. The sea sits at its warmest of the year, a swimmable 25.2C. The record: humidity 75 percent, 10.3 hours of sun, a 16 kph wind and AQI 41.

Regulars name the one event that overrides everything else this month: the calima, a hot wind off the Sahara that blankets the island in dust and can push temperatures well above the norm - into the mid-thirties - for anywhere from a few hours to about a week, three or four times a year on average. Away from a calima, our row is the baseline it interrupts: 28.3C reading as a real 32C at 75.5 percent humidity, over 21.3C nights, with rain essentially absent, 8.9mm across under a day. They are reassuring about the health impact - a hazy, hot day rather than a reason to stay indoors, unless you have breathing problems. The sea holds 24.9C regardless. The record: 11.2 hours of sun, a 17.2 kph wind and AQI 35.

June on Tenerife depends less on the month than on where you stand. Regulars give high-20s to low-30s days and then immediately qualify it: the north runs five to ten degrees cooler than the south and takes more rain, and the weather can differ completely between places ten kilometres apart. Their advice divides the island by what you came for - the north for scenery, walking and something more Canarian, the south for beach, warm evenings and reliable sun. The June wildcard is the calima, Saharan dust that arrives as anything from light haze to thick fog and pushes the temperature up; it usually lasts a day or two, and they put the odds at under one fortnight in ten. Our row for the island: 26.2C reading as 30C. The record: 19.3C nights, 0.5 precipitation days and a 23.3C sea.

Tenerife forum threads consistently rate January as pleasant, with typical days part-sunny and part-cloudy in the low twenties Celsius, warm enough for shorts and a t-shirt by day though a light jacket helps for breezy evenings. One poster tracking three years of January visits in Costa Adeje reported lovely weather roughly 80% of the time, warm enough to sunbathe most days. A recurring, slightly amusing observation across threads: visiting tourists walk around in summer clothes while local residents bundle up in coats, gloves and scarves for the same weather. Posters were honest that a few days of genuinely heavy rain aren't unheard of even in a generally sunny January, so packing for the occasional wet day alongside the beach gear was the consistent advice.