Socotra in July

Getting there, and what is open

The flight pattern this site documents, Yemenia from Jeddah on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is described for the October to April season. What runs in July, if anything, is not something the sources state, so treat July as having no tourist route in or out.

Sea and wind

July is the year's wind peak: a monthly mean of 47.3 km/h, against 44.1 in August, 39.7 in June and 11.1 in April. Through the peak the north coast takes the gales and the south coast the waves, as the published research describes it.

The temperature does the opposite of what people expect. Days average 27.4 C, more than four degrees below April's 31.7 and level with February's, because cloud and wind are doing the work. Nights stay at 24.2 C, which gives July the smallest gap between day and night of any month, about three degrees. Humidity is 80 percent and 12 mm of rain falls.

Bloom and wildlife

Nothing on the island is at a photographic peak. The bottle tree is in the middle of its May to September dormancy, and the chameleon notes rule out the whole monsoon on access grounds.

Photography

If July interests you as a photographer, the route is not a July trip. It is April, which the record gives the lowest wind, the lowest humidity and the clearest long views of the year.