🇨🇳China

China extends from 18°09′ to 53°33′N as the world's third-largest country, covering approximately 9.6 million km² and telescoping virtually every climate type on Earth. The landscape forms a west-to-east descending stairway from the Tibetan Plateau above 4,000 m—often called the Roof of the World—through the basins and ranges of Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, across the loess plateau and the North China Plain, to the southeastern hill country.

Major Köppen regimes include monsoon-driven humid subtropical Cfa and Cwa across the south and southeast (Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong), humid continental Dwa and Dwb across the North China Plain and Manchuria (Beijing, Harbin), cold semi-arid BSk and arid BWk spanning the Gobi and Taklamakan basins (Urumqi, Hotan), tropical Aw on Hainan Island, alpine ET and EF on the Tibetan and Tian Shan ranges, and Mediterranean-influenced Csa-like niches in southern Xinjiang.

Guangzhou averages 14°C in January and 29°C in July with 1,700 mm of rain dominated by the East Asian monsoon. Beijing experiences a continental pattern at −3°C in January and 27°C in July with 530 mm of summer-concentrated rainfall. Harbin endures frigid conditions at −19°C in January and 23°C in July. Shanghai displays humid subtropical characteristics at 4°C in winter and 28°C in summer with 1,170 mm of precipitation.

Lhasa on the Tibetan Plateau averages −2°C in January and 16°C in July with dry air and intense solar radiation. The Turpan basin exhibits extreme continental swings from −9°C in winter to 33°C in summer, with maxima above 47°C. Hong Kong ranges from 16°C to 28°C and experiences typhoon season from May to November.

The Plum Rain or Mei-Yu front delivers heavy June downpours to the Yangtze valley, while the East Asian summer monsoon governs more than seventy percent of national rainfall. Major recent events include the 1998 Yangtze floods, the 2008 South China snowstorm, the 2012 Beijing flood, the 2021 Henan floods, the 2022 heatwave, and glacier retreat across the Tian Shan and Himalayas. Air quality and heatwave challenges continue in megacities.

Our archive covers 47 Chinese cities with daily ERA5 reanalysis data going back to 1940. The warmest July averages occur in Hangzhou, around 33.4°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 1.6°C.