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Forum posters are candid that February is cold, often not much above freezing, and dark early - but a surprising number argue winter is actually the best time to visit precisely because the summer crowds are long gone while the city itself stays fully open. The advice for rainy stretches is simply not to let it derail the trip: the museum, the Pavilion, the pier and Churchill Square all give plenty of indoor and covered options, and a rainy day arguably means a quieter, more local experience of the seafront and lanes.

The Brighton forum's line on July is that it is unpredictable in both directions - brilliant one week, grey and wet the next - with the south coast running warmer than points north. The beach is pebble, not sand, and regulars warn that the water is cold whatever the air is doing, though people swim anyway; Hove Lawns is the recommendation for a proper swim, with a blue flag, a lifeguard, a cafe and toilets on the promenade. On crowds the advice is blunt: if it is sunny, every beach in Brighton and Hove will be busy, the stretch between the two piers busiest of all, quieter east and west, and a weekday better than a weekend. The record: 21.6C days, 13C nights, 9.8 precipitation days, 11.5 hours of sun and a 17.8C sea.

Brighton's forum is honest that August is no sure thing — regulars describe swings from a cool, rainy week in the mid-60s°F to a properly hot one in the high 80s within the same summer. The one constant: it's a pebble beach, not sand, and the water stays cold enough that most visitors manage no more than a quick dip even in August.