Alacati Wind & Weather: Meltemi, Month by Month

Alacati is windy on almost every summer afternoon because of the meltemi, the dry north wind that blows down the Aegean from May to October and gets funnelled and sped up by the hills around the bay. From roughly June to September you can count on sailable wind about 7 days in 10, usually 15 to 25 knots, side-shore from the left. We live here year round, and below we explain the meltemi in plain English, give you a month by month reliability table, the best hours to be on the water, where we actually check the forecast, and what to do on the rare flat day.

Why is Alacati so windy?

Three separate things stack on top of each other, which is why the wind here is stronger and more reliable than almost anywhere else on the coast. The first is the meltemi itself, an Aegean-wide summer wind. High pressure sits over the Balkans and low pressure over Turkey, and air pours from one to the other as a steady north to northwest flow all summer.

The second is the local thermal sea breeze. Every clear summer day the land heats faster than the sea, and by late morning the warm air rising over the land pulls cooler air in off the water. This thermal and the meltemi blow from roughly the same direction, so they reinforce each other rather than cancel out.

The third is geography. The bay is a wide U shape with hills on either side, and that shape squeezes the wind like a thumb over a hose. This funnel effect (a Venturi, if you want the term) adds up to around 6 knots over whatever is blowing out on the open sea.

Here is the local part you only learn by living with it: you can nearly set your watch by the bay. It is glassy at breakfast, and by late morning the first whitecaps appear off the point. By mid-afternoon the whole bay is corduroy and the sails are out.

The three winds: meltemi, imbat and lodos

Most guides use these words loosely, so here is the plain version. The meltemi (called Etesian in meteorology) is the big one: the north to northwest Aegean summer wind that peaks mid-July to mid-August, can blow three to six days without a break, and does not reliably die at night.

The imbat is the daily thermal sea breeze described above. Local schools often call the everyday wind “imbat,” while forecast sites call it “meltemi.” In Alacati they are usually the same afternoon wind wearing two names, and it does not matter which you use.

The lodos is the odd one out and worth knowing. It is a south to southwest wind that turns up mostly in spring and autumn and pushes chop and swell, up to about 1.5 metres, into the normally flat bay. It is the only time Alacati gets anything like waves, and it is what makes the water suddenly lumpy instead of the mirror-flat surface that makes the bay so good for learning (more on that in our windsurfing guide).

Locals read a lodos before the forecast confirms it: the air turns warm and hazy, the sea goes a duller grey, and the smell off the water gets stronger. When the town feels sticky and the sea looks angry from the south, that is lodos.

The winter-windiest myth

If you check a general weather site, it will tell you Alacati is windiest in January and February and calmest in May. That is technically correct and completely useless to a windsurfer. Those winter winds are cold, stormy frontal systems, not the warm, steady thermal you came to ride.

The number those sites report is average wind speed across the whole year, which lumps cold storms in with warm thermals. What actually matters is how often you get sailable, warm-water wind, and that peaks in July and August, exactly when the annual average looks unremarkable.

The local truth: February really is our windiest month, but it is a wet, cold, onshore-storm wind that empties the town rather than fills the bay. Do not book a February windsurf trip on the strength of an average wind chart. For the fuller seasonal picture, see our best time to visit Alacati page.

Month by month wind reliability

This is the table we wish existed when we were learning. Reliability is the rough share of days with sailable wind. Water temperatures are approximate monthly averages, and the sea always lags the air by about a month, which is why September water is warmer than June.

Month	Wind reliability	Typical strength	Water temp	Notes
May	Building, ~50%	Light, 12-18 kt	19 C	Calmest on paper, wetsuit, quiet town
Jun	Reliable, ~60-70%	15-22 kt	22 C	Sweet spot: warm, good wind, fewer people
Jul	Very reliable, ~70%	18-25 kt, gusts 30+	24 C	Peak meltemi, busiest and hottest
Aug	Very reliable, ~70%	18-25 kt, gusts 30+	25 C	Warmest water, most crowded
Sep	Reliable, ~60-70%	15-22 kt	24 C	Second sweet spot, warm sea, thinning crowds
Oct	Easing, ~50%	Variable	21 C	Wetsuit, season winding down, some lodos
Nov-Apr	Off-season	Cold, storm-driven	15-18 C	Most schools closed, unreliable wind

If you want our one-line recommendation, it is June and early September. You get the same reliable wind as high summer with warmer, calmer sailing for beginners, cheaper rooms and far fewer people in the bay. July and August have the strongest, most certain wind, but you share the water and the town with everyone else.

Best hours of the day to sail

The daily rhythm is the single most useful thing to know, and it holds through the whole season. Mornings are usually light, which is exactly what a beginner wants for first tacks, or what a SUP paddler wants for a calm float. The thermal typically fills in between 10 and 11 in the morning.

From there it builds steadily and is strongest in the late afternoon, roughly 3 to 6pm, before easing after sunset. The exception is a strong meltemi system, which can hold the wind up well into the night, so the bay is not always calm at dinner.

This rhythm is why the schools structure their day the way they do: beginner lessons in the morning calm, stronger sailors sent out after lunch. We plan our own lunch around when the wind fills, and so does half the bay. If you are picking a school around this, our windsurf schools page compares them.

Where to check the Alacati forecast

We use Windguru as the main source, which has a dedicated Alacati spot with the model most sailors here trust, and we cross-check it against Windy.app. Both give you the pressure-driven picture a few days out, which is what you plan around.

Windfinder also lists Alacati, but a word of warning: its live weather station has been offline and not reporting, so do not treat any “current” reading there as gospel. Trust the forecast models over the live number.

The most reliable forecast, honestly, is your own eyes on the bay by late morning. If there are whitecaps off the point by 11am, it is on, and no app beats standing on the beach and watching the flags at the schools.

What to do on a no-wind day

Truly flat days are rare in July and August, but they happen, and they are common in May and October. The good news is that a calm day is a lovely day for everything else Alacati does well.

It is a perfect morning for a long Aegean breakfast, or for the Saturday market if the timing lands right. It is also the day to rent a car and head inland: our day trips from Alacati page covers the Urla wine route and the peninsula’s quieter corners. If you just want to swim, the water at Ilica is calmer and warmer than the windsurf bay, and our beaches guide sorts out which is which.

If you would rather stay near the water, the beach clubs work on a minimum-spend model, roughly 3,200 TRY (about 60 EUR) for two sunbeds and a parasol, with the fee converting into food and drink. Or you can do what the locals do: take the day off, and trust that the meltemi will be back on the water tomorrow afternoon.