Погода: Тель-Авив, декабрь

Tel Aviv forum regulars describe December as mild but genuinely wetter than the city's reputation suggests: “even in December you can expect more rain than sun” some stretches, typically arriving as “a few days of rain followed by a week or two of sun” rather than a steady drizzle. Temperature isn't a sure thing either — “there's no guarantee that it would be above 22 degrees; it might be around 17 or 18” — but the sea stays a genuine option: “sometimes it is warm enough to go in in late December,” with regulars reporting wading or even a proper swim in a mild year. Standard packing: long pants and t-shirts layered with something warmer, an umbrella for the rainy stretches. Our record: 19.9°C days, 13.5°C nights, 9 rain days and a 21.6°C sea — mild and genuinely swimmable, with real rain risk matching the “more rain than the reputation admits” read.

Regulars are specific that this coast's heat is genuinely different from the country's interior - humidity can reach up to 90 percent here in peak summer, while Jerusalem inland stays hot but dry and, by comparison, much more comfortable at a similar temperature. Our row backs the muggy heat, 33C reading as a severe 36C at 69 percent humidity, over 23.4C nights, with rain essentially absent, 0.5mm and effectively zero rainy days. Regulars are reassuring that evenings do cool down enough to offer real relief, and that widespread air conditioning indoors plus shaded parks and caves make the days manageable for visitors used to a humid summer elsewhere. The sea offers real relief too at a warm 29C. The record: 12.7 hours of sun, an 18.5 kph wind and AQI 56.

September here is summer with the worst taken off it: still hot, still humid, but with a sea breeze the inland cities do not get. Our row gives 32.3C reading as 35C at 69 percent humidity, with an 18.2 kph wind off the water and 1.9mm of rain in the whole month. The number regulars enthuse about is the sea - they call it bathtub warm at the end of summer, and our column says 29.4C, warmer than the air feels at night. The complication is the calendar: the autumn Jewish holidays fall in September some years and not others, and when they do the country fills, prices jump and some places close. Check the dates first. The record: 22.1C nights, 11.2 hours of sun and AQI 50.

May is the month regulars pick for touring here - the summer heat has not arrived and the humidity that makes it hard is still months off - and early May is usually warm enough to swim, though the sea is at the cool end of its year at 22.5C and far below its September figure. Our row gives 29.2C days over 17.2C nights with 5.3mm of rain. The variable they name is the sharav, or hamsin: a very hot dry south-easterly that arrives in spring, dries everything out, and might take two or three days of a fortnight's trip. May and June with September and October are the beach seasons they recommend. The record: humidity 61 percent, 12.6 hours of sun and AQI 61.

October in Tel Aviv is still beach weather and the forum's figures are the reason: the sea stays above 25C - our row puts it at 27.6C - and plenty of people swim through October and into November, in warm days, warm water and evenings that finally cool off. The thing to check is not the temperature but the lifeguards. The official season ends in the second half of October, one recent year on the 24th, with duty hours through the season running from about a quarter past seven in the morning to a quarter to five; roughly six beaches then stay open all winter on shorter hours. Regulars are firm that you swim where there is a lifeguard and nowhere else. The record: 29.8C days that feel like 31C, 18.4C nights and 2.6 precipitation days.