Погода: Пхукет, январь

January is the month Phuket regulars name first: hot sunny days, clear skies, and the calmest sea of the year, with little to no surf on any of the beaches. Their temperature range of 32 to 34C matches our row's 32.7C, which reads as 37C once the humidity is counted. On rain they are more optimistic than our row - they describe very low rainfall, where our figures give 75mm across 8 days, so treat theirs as the typical week rather than the monthly total. The cost is the crowd: this is the middle of high season, the peak running from mid-December to mid-January, and the island is very busy with prices to match. The record: 25.3C nights, humidity 77 percent, 10.1 hours of sun and a 28.7C sea.

Regulars are specific this counts as the hottest and most humid month of the year here, high-30s Celsius the norm, though it also remains one of the drier months with short, build-up thundery showers typically arriving in the afternoon rather than settling in all day. Our row backs that hot, genuinely wet read, 33.8C reading as a scorching 40C, over 26.7C nights feeling 31C, with a substantial 124.7mm of rain across 17.4 days and humidity at 78 percent. Regulars are consistent the west coast starts tipping toward its rainy season as May approaches, so later in the month brings meaningfully worse odds than earlier. The Songkran festival, usually around April 12-14, adds crowds and water-splashing celebrations on top of the heat. The sea sits at a bath-warm 30.6C. The record: 10.4 hours of sun, a 19.2 kph wind and AQI 56.

Phuket-forum threads on May weather place it right at the start of the green season - hot and humid between showers, with posters generally expecting around an hour of rain most days rather than a full washout, and conditions described as noticeably less wet than the August-through-October stretch later in the year. Experiences vary trip to trip: some visitors report a stretch of very hot, mostly clear days, others get the more typical reliable afternoon downpour. The clearest upside is value - hotel prices drop meaningfully and the island runs far less crowded than the December-to-March high season. The one caution: posters flag rougher seas can make swimming unsafe on certain beaches, worth checking flag warnings. The record: 33.2C days feeling like a punishing 39C, 26.1C nights, a notably high 280mm across 25.4 days, 81 percent humidity, a 31.2C sea and 9.2 hours of sun.

Phuket-forum threads on high season are specific about the calendar: mid-December through mid-January covers Christmas and New Year and is described as when the weather usually turns perfect - clear skies, calm seas, a pleasant breeze keeping the heat comfortable. Early December is the transition, where an odd shower or storm can still show up, though posters call the overall balance decent rather than risky, with no more than six or seven passing-shower events across the whole month in a typical year. The trade-off for the good weather is real: peak season means real crowds and the standing advice to book well ahead. The record: 32.3C days feeling like a sticky 37C, 25.2C nights, 98mm across 12 days, 79 percent humidity, a 29.2C sea and 9.4 hours of sun - hot and properly humid even at its most reliable.

March is usually Phuket's least wet month and the tail of the hot season, with April hotter again. Forum regulars describe it as hot and humid with calm seas - one calls them mirror-like at this time of year - while warning that the sea starts to pick up towards April and can stop being ideal for small children or easy snorkelling. By mid-March the heat is enough that people start wishing for the occasional shower. The other thing worth knowing is what March is not: the burning-season haze that settles over northern Thailand does not really reach the southern islands, which get rain year-round rather than a five-month dry season. The record: 33.7C days that feel like 40C, 26.4C nights, 7.6 precipitation days, 10.8 hours of sun and a 29.6C sea.