We're starting to have the occasional day hot enough that the best approach really is just to spend the afternoon in a cool basement; today was such a day. This is why most organisms in arid regions are nocturnal, after all. So, after my usual Friday excursion to the market (peaches and the first spinach crop just came in from the north ... yum!), it was down to the dorm computer room with my laptop for a few hours. Probably nice weather for a bike ride after sunset, though, especially given that Shabbat has now started, clearing away most auto traffic.
So far this spring, the weather here is tracking very neatly with conditions where I grew up, in San Antonio, Texas. Here it hit 91°F today with slightly more than 80% humidity; there it was 88°F with humidity percentage in the high seventies. About a month shy of the summer solstice, the days are getting noticeably long, and the water temperature of the seas next door to both cities will be shooting up. (Rehovot's about 15 km from the Mediterranean; San Antonio is closer to 150 from the Gulf of Mexico, but since the topography changes much more slowly in Texas I figure that's about comparable.) Thus this is the time of year when both cities are assaulted by warm moist air rolling in from the coast. Feels like home.
The parallels will continue. As the summer progresses, both Rehovot and San Antonio will dry out once the land becomes hot enough to develop a stable cap of dry air warmer than what's out over the water. Heated air blowing from more arid regions further inland will help establish that pattern towards the middle of June, and it will likely persist (with sporadic intrusions of sticky) through September.
I've always found San Antonio altogether neat in part because it lies at this eco-topographic crossroads between coastal plain, hilly scrublands, and desert. It just so happens that what Texas manages in a region 500 miles across, Israel packs into 50. It's a real shame the highways here are so scary; if I were feeling bolder I could cycle from beach to mountains and back in a day.
Another observation to note: the past few nights cycling back to the dorm, the climate has felt almost identical to the nights when I arrived early last October. To the best of my recollection, anyway.
Supposing that is accurate, the midpoint between then and now is early August, suggesting that then is when the temperature will peak here. Assuming the temperature follows some basically symmetric profile, which I think it does.