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| How do you find out what sort of weather to expect on holiday? |
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| While most people make their holiday plans weeks or months in advance of departure, weather forecasts are only available at best for 3 to 5 days into the future. So how do you find out what sort of weather to expect when you are planning your holiday? |
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| Luckily recurring weather patterns do exist for most places and these can be identified from historical weather records (climate statistics) averaged over many years. At Weather2Travel.com we have assembled detailed climate guides for thousands of destinations all around the world based on the last 30 years of weather averages. |
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| Each Climate Guide shows what sort of weather you are likely to find in any month of the year for any given destination. The information is presented as easy-to-read graphics that give you an instant snap-shot of average weather conditions and enable you to compare different destinations easily. |
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| Climate Guides show figures for the following weather conditions: |
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| Remember, holiday brochures only show photographs taken under the very best weather conditions and only provide limited information about holiday weather. |
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| Our Climate Guides originate from totally independent sources of information and are based on the most up-to-date scientific data available giving you a more informative picture of holiday weather. Browse Worldwide Destinations or Search by name. |
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| If you are interested to know which is the 'Best Month' to visit a destination based on your ideal holiday weather, try our When to Travel feature. Simply select a destination and at least one weather parameter and each month will be given a ranking. |
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| In addition to our Climate Guides, we show Current Weather Reports for travel destinations around the world. These reports, most of which are updated hourly, are also presented graphically and include information about temperature, heat & humidity, wind chill, sky cover, wind speed/direction, and other prevailing conditions. |
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| We recommend that in the same way as you might check a destination for facilities like windsurfing, golf or beauty treatments, or for entertainment for your children, you should also check out holiday weather with Weather2Travel.com. |
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| Our climate information has been derived from various meteorological sources including the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Centre, the European Space Agency's Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service, and the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit 1961-1990 high-resolution gridded datasets. |
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| Understanding Heat & Humidity |
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| Is your idea of bad holiday weather just limited to cloudy skies and rain? How do you feel about high temperatures and high humidity? Many travellers do not realise that excessive heat and humidity can be a real problem when they are on holiday, as there may be no escape from it, even at night. |
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| For example, from the middle of June to the middle of September heat & humidity in Dubai is generally 'Extreme', and travellers who are not used to this should beware. Weather2Travel.com's unique Heat & Humidity discomfort indicator will flag these places for you. |
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| Interpreting Rainfall and Sunshine Figures |
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| In some parts of the world travellers may assume that because high levels of rainfall are recorded it will rain all the time. However, monthly rainfall figures can be misleading when considered in isolation. |
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| Destinations like Cancun in Mexico, the beaches of Bali, and the Maldives all have a wet season when more rain falls in a week than falls in a whole month in most places in Europe or North America. However at these tropical destinations, it normally only rains for a short time each day. |
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| The key is to check not only monthly rainfall and the number of days with some rainfall, but also the average hours of sunshine and what percentage of the day this represents. |
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| At the other end of the scale are destinations where not much rain falls, but where the sun does not shine either, so do not be fooled by low rainfall figures. Hong Kong, for example, has very little rain in February but low cloud, drizzle and hill fog could make time spent there quite miserable. |
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| Similarly in July in Nairobi, Kenya only 22mm of rain usually falls in the whole month, which is less than an inch. Yet the weather is generally cloudy and dull, as indicated by the low figure of only 35% of daylight hours with sunshine. And with night-time temperatures falling to 10°C it can also feel quite cold at times. |
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