Songkhla's driest, most comfortable stretch, with the lowest humidity and the calmest weather for the beach at Samila. February edges out March and April as the pick of the three, just slightly less hot. Rain isn't fully gone even now, an occasional shower can still pass through, but nothing like the months on either side.

This tier spans two different parts of the year. January can go either way, some years its first half brings genuinely torrential rain left over from the retreating monsoon, other years it stays comparatively calm. May through September sit in the milder middle of the rainy season: showers are frequent, sometimes daily, but long dry, intensely hot stretches are common too, especially from June through August.

The heart of the northeast monsoon, or retreating monsoon, when rain becomes genuinely torrential. November is typically the worst month of the year, though October and December can bring similarly heavy downpours. Humidity and cloud cover peak here too, with the longest stretches of overcast skies all year.