Asia

Asia covers roughly ninety degrees of latitude, from Cape Chelyuskin near 77°N to islands of Indonesia south of the Equator, and packs every major Köppen climate into one continent: polar tundra and subarctic taiga across Siberia, humid continental in the northeast, humid subtropical in eastern China, Japan, and Korea, Mediterranean climate in the Levant, tropical monsoon and rainforest across South and Southeast Asia, vast arid belts in Arabia, Iran, Central Asia, the Thar, Taklamakan, and Gobi, and an immense highland regime over the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas.

Two systems dominate the seasonal pattern. In summer, the Asian monsoon — the strongest on Earth — pulls oceanic moisture across South and East Asia, delivering up to 90 percent of yearly rainfall in many regions and feeding the wettest places on the planet around Mawsynram and Cherrapunji in Meghalaya, where annual totals approach 12,000 mm.

In winter, the Siberian High locks cold, dry air over Inner Asia and pushes outbreaks south and east; Verkhoyansk and Oymyakon have recorded temperatures near −68°C, the coldest readings ever taken outside Antarctica. The Tibetan Plateau and Himalayas tower above both regimes, blocking moisture and forcing the desert belts of Central Asia. Northwest Pacific typhoons — the most active tropical-cyclone basin on Earth — round out the warm-season picture.

Our archive covers 60 Asian cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Baghdad, around 44.7°C, while Harbin records the coldest January nights near −25.1°C. Comparing the last decade against the 1940–1970 baseline, mean temperatures across these cities have risen by about 1.4°C, with the strongest warming over the Arctic and the Tibetan Plateau.