Het weer in Jeffreysbaai in februari

February is good weather on this stretch of the South African coast, and the Port Elizabeth forum's standing caveat is the nickname: they call it the Windy City for a reason, and when it blows the same temperature feels several degrees cooler. The coast and a few kilometres inland can be having different days. Early-morning game drives in open vehicles are the place people feel it most - minimums around 16 to 18C in February and March, plus wind chill in an open vehicle. The beaches regulars name are Humewood, Kings and Sardinia Bay, with the rocky shore at Schoenmakerskop as the alternative. The record: 26.2C days feeling like 28C, 17.2C nights, 7.9 precipitation days, a 20.6C sea and a 23 kph wind.

South Africa's forum makes an important regional distinction that matters for Jeffreys Bay: the Western Cape gets its wet season in winter, but the Eastern Cape, where J-Bay sits, actually gets its rain mostly in summer - so July here tends to run cooler but comparatively dry rather than wet and stormy. Posters described South African winter generally as variable day to day, some sunny and around 25C, others cold and windy, but consistently said it never rains for days on end. It's a real winter, worth packing layers for, just not the wet winter some visitors expect based on Cape Town's pattern.

Forum posters note that while Jeffreys Bay's legendary Supertubes wave is at its best in the June-August winter swell season, most say the town and its surf breaks are genuinely good most of the year, January included. Wind is a recurring theme - it tends to pick up through the day, strong enough that beach shade setups need to be secured. Ocean temperature can run surprisingly variable day to day (one visitor reported an unusually cold 15C reading), so checking conditions rather than assuming a constant summer sea temperature is standard advice. Beyond the water, posters point to the Jeffreys Bay Shell Museum (the country's largest shell collection) as a solid non-surfing stop, alongside the area's numerous surf schools for beginners wanting lessons regardless of season.