How we score the weather

The data

Temperature, rainfall and dew point come from TerraClimate (Abatzoglou et al., 2018, Scientific Data), a global monthly climate dataset on a ~4 km grid, released into the public domain. We use its 1991–2020 averages: mean daily high, mean daily low, total monthly precipitation, and vapour pressure, from which dew point is calculated exactly.

Cloud cover comes from CHELSA v2.1 (Karger et al., 2017; data DOI 10.16904/envidat.228), also public domain, as a 1981–2010 average.

Before publishing, we checked these figures against official station normals for cities with well-known climates, including tropical and coastal ones; highs and lows agree to within about 1–2°C. We tried and rejected two other sources that read 3–5°C off for coastal and tropical cities.

Daylight is calculated from latitude for the middle of each month. Public holidays come from the open-source holidays library and cover the next twelve months from the date the site was last rebuilt (2026-11-02).

Places, sights and photos

Destination facts (currency, languages, plug types, driving side, calling code, airports, population) and the lists of sights and UNESCO World Heritage sites come from Wikidata, the free knowledge base (CC0). Sights are notable places within 12 km of the centre, ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions cover them: a rough measure of fame, not a recommendation. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons, only under licences that allow reuse, and each is credited on its page.

Advisories and earthquakes

Travel advisory levels come from the U.S. Department of State and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, and recent earthquakes from the U.S. Geological Survey. They are refreshed every day; each page shows the date they were last checked and links to the official source, which you should read before travelling. Earthquakes are listed if they were magnitude 4.5 or more in the last 30 days and either shallow (under 70 km deep) within 200 km, or magnitude 6 or more within 300 km.

The comfort score (0–10)

The score answers one question: how pleasant is a typical day for walking around outdoors? It starts at 10 and loses points for:

• Temperature. Average highs from 22 to 29°C (72–84°F) lose nothing. Below 22°C or above 29°C, each degree costs 0.6 points.
• Rain. Months with more than 30 mm lose points steadily, up to 4 points for very wet months.
• Cloud. Cloud cover above 40% costs up to 2 points.
• Humidity. We use dew point, the best single measure of how sticky air feels. A dew point of 18–20°C (64–68°F) costs 0.75 points, 20–22°C costs 1.5, and 22°C (72°F) or more costs 2.

Labels: 8 and above is Excellent, 6.5 Good, 5 Fair, below 5 Poor. "Best months" are those within 1 point of a destination's top month and at least Good. A single month sitting between two best months counts too if it is within 1.5 points of the top. Where no month reaches Good, the page says so and names the most comfortable months instead.

The score is built for general sightseeing. Skiers, divers and people who love a heatwave will weigh months differently, which is why every raw figure sits next to it.

Known limits

• These are averages, not forecasts. A given week can differ a lot.
• The climate keeps warming. Recent summers in particular can run hotter than 1991–2020 averages.
• Grid, not station. Each figure is for a ~4 km grid cell, not a single weather station, so it can differ from an airport's official record by a degree or two, especially in hills and on coasts. Where a city centre sits on the water, we read the nearest land cell and say so on the page.
• No crowds or prices yet. Public holidays are a partial signal; school holidays are not included.

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