Het weer in Zakynthos (Zante) in december

Regulars are honest this month turns genuinely hit-and-miss once underway, warm sunny days with temperatures well into the mid-20s Celsius alongside a real chance of scattered showers, sometimes heavy with thunder and lightning but rarely lasting more than 20 to 30 minutes. Our row backs that mild, genuinely wet read, 24.3C reading as a hot 25C, over 15.9C nights, with a substantial 124.3mm of rain across 8.5 days and a real 23.2 kph wind. Regulars are consistent some years stay sunny throughout while others bring more rain, a brolly and waterproof jacket the standard advice regardless of which pattern shows up. The sea itself stays warm and perfect for swimming despite the changeable skies above it. The sea sits at 24.4C. The record: 9.4 hours of sun and AQI 49.

May here is hot and sunny without being overpowering, and regulars describe the water in a way no column can: warm enough to swim in, not warm enough to stand around in and chat. It climbs through the month - about 15C at the start, comfortable by the middle - and our monthly column averages that out at 19C. The evenings catch people out: 14.5C with a 24.2 kph breeze off the sea, so a cardigan is worth carrying even after a hot day. Rain is 21.6mm across 4.9 days and dries off quickly when it comes. The island is quiet in May, quiet enough to be pleasant rather than empty. The record: humidity 79 percent, 12.3 hours of sun and AQI 56.

Regulars describe September here as still hot enough to sunbathe and no longer too hot to walk, with any rain arriving near the end of the month and passing quickly - our row has 72.9mm across just 6.1 days under 29C. One visitor recalls mid-30s in a mid-September week, which is what an average of 29C looks like from the top end. They are clear that this is still the season: the closures start in mid-October, not now, and the sea is at its warmest, which our 25.7C supports. Late September can still turn up turtle hatchlings making for the water, though that is the tail of it. The record: 19.2C nights, humidity 73 percent, 10.8 hours of sun and a 24 kph wind.

July is one of the driest months on Zakynthos and regulars say so flatly - our row gives 7.7mm across 0.9 precipitation days under 13.2 hours of sun a day, the most in this collection. Their temperature line is the mid-eighties Fahrenheit and often a good deal warmer, with 40C reached in high summer; our 31.6C reads as 36C because the humidity sits at 79 percent. What makes it tolerable is a pattern worth knowing: the wind gets up through the afternoon and drops away in the evening, taking the mugginess with it, which our 26.3 kph average is the flat version of. On the loggerhead turtles they are honest - the nesting beaches are Laganas, Kalamaki and Gerakas, they close during nesting and hatching, and actually seeing one is rare. The record: 21.7C nights and a 26.5C sea.