Погода: Малакка, июнь

Regulars call June as good a month as any here, because the south-west monsoon from May to September is the least wet part of a wet year - and our numbers agree, 195.1mm against November's 399.5mm. What the season does not reduce is the number of rainy days: 22.8 of them, which is the board's own description of the pattern. Sunny mornings, then heavy but short showers in the late afternoon and early evening. So outdoor plans go before lunch and the afternoon has an indoor answer. The other half of the same season is haze, blown over from Sumatran burning, and our AQI column carries it - 121 this month against 87 in December. Rain clears it. 32.8C reading as 39C at 85 percent humidity. The record: 24C nights and 9.5 hours of sun.

Forum posters describe July as falling within the southwest monsoon, running roughly May through September, which affects Malaysia's west coast including Malacca - posters are consistent that this means a higher chance of rain on any given day rather than a guarantee of rain all day. Posters describe a typical July day as hot, humid and sunny, or hot, humid with some rain mixed in, with real luck-of-the-draw variability from one day to the next. Posters consistently warn that longer-range weather forecasts for this part of Malaysia aren't reliable, recommending flexible, lightweight clothing and an umbrella on hand regardless of what any forecast predicts. Posters generally rate July as a warm, humid, moderately unpredictable month to visit Malacca, manageable with the right mindset about rain.

January puts Malacca on the right coast at the right time, and the forum's framing is comparative: the west coast, KL and Melaka included, gets a dry, breezy stretch from mid-December through January, while the east coast of the peninsula is in the north-east monsoon and best avoided — much more rain, rough seas. That said, regulars are firm that there is no such thing as "no rain" in a tropical country: the record still shows fourteen wet days here, arriving as an hour or three of rain and then sun again. Near 29°C by day, 25 overnight, sea at 29.