Dresden weather by month — averages, rainfall & climate trends
Its baroque skyline, celebrated art collections and gentle riverside setting earned Dresden the name Elbflorenz — Florence on the Elbe — a city whose story, from the Zwinger to the Frauenkirche, has always been bound to its river. Average temperatures and rainfall by month, a climate graph, today's conditions versus the long-term average, and how the climate has shifted since 1940 — all on one page for Dresden, Germany.
Today vs average
−3.2°Cmuch cooler than usual
How it’s changed
Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.
Right now
16.1°
20°14°
22°13°20°14°20°14°23°13°28°12°25°16°On this date — July 20
Cooler than usual · 3.2°C below the average high
- Record high: 36.2° · 2006
- Record low: 9.3° · 1996
- One year ago: 31.7°
Every July 20 in history — coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each July 20 on record (n = 87). Outlined dots are today's forecast.
Area we sample
Each city's history comes from one ERA5 grid cell — about 28 km across, shown by the dashed box. Near mountains or coasts, conditions can vary across the cell.
Location & data
Historical weather for Dresden is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 51.05°N, 13.74°E, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 51.05°N, 13.74°E
- Time zone
- Europe/Berlin
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
25 of the last 31 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +4.1°C.
Each bar is one day, from morning low to afternoon high. Warm-colored bars are days whose mean ran above average; cool bars ran below. The dot inside the bar is the daily mean. The shaded band is the typical 10–90% range expected for that date. Average = the day's mean temperature averaged across every year of record (1940–2026) for that calendar date.
This date over the years
One dot per year — the mean temperature on this calendar date. Dots are warmer or cooler than the long-term average (dashed line); the shaded band is the typical 10–90% range, and the highlighted dot is today's forecast. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Weather by month
Average temperatures and rainfall for each month — what a typical year looks like, from the full record.Climate overview
Dresden straddles the Elbe within the broad Dresden Basin, hemmed in on three sides: the eastern Ore Mountains rise to the south, the steep granite rim of Lusatia to the north, and the Elbe Sandstone Mountains upstream to the east. The climate is oceanic (Köppen Cfb), though the city's position deep inside the continent gives it a continental tilt: warm summers, comparatively cold winters, a rainfall peak in high summer and the driest weeks in late winter and early spring.
The river that defines the city also brings its greatest hazard. In August 2002, torrential rain pushed the Elbe far beyond its usual level — above even the historic 1845 mark — and left many of the city's landmarks damaged; large riverside areas are kept unbuilt to give floodwater room, and two wide trenches steer high water past the inner city. As the climate warms, Germany is expected to see heavier extreme rain and a greater danger of flash floods, above all in built-up areas, while droughts become more frequent.
The year peaks in July, at 18.9°C over the day and around 23.2°C by mid-afternoon. At the other extreme, January averages -0.1°C, with typical overnight lows of -2.5°C.
In total, Dresden averages about 867 mm of precipitation a year; July is usually the wettest month (97 mm) and February the driest (57 mm).
The record here starts in 1940, and since then the annual mean in Dresden has climbed 2.4°C from the first ten years to the last ten. Where the first decade averaged 90 frost days a year, the recent one saw about 45.
Climate graph (climograph)
July is the warmest month, January the coolest — a yearly swing of 19°C. Wettest month: July (~97 mm). Whole year averages ~867 mm of rain.
Bars = average monthly rainfall (right axis). Lines = average daily high and low (left axis). Average = each month's value averaged across every year of record (1940–2026).
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre — a measured proxy for how sunny the month is.
Dresden month by month — what to expect
Typical conditions for each month, averaged across the full record (since 1940). Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset. Record high/low are the most extreme values in the ERA5 dataset (modelled since 1940), so they can differ from official weather-station readings.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Daylight | Record high | Record low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2.2° | -2.5° | 65 mm | 8.2 h | 16.7° (2023) | -25.2° (1947) |
| February | 3.7° | -1.9° | 57 mm | 9.7 h | 19.5° (2021) | -25.7° (1956) |
| March | 8.1° | 1.0° | 63 mm | 11.5 h | 24.4° (1968) | -18.5° (1949) |
| April | 13.3° | 4.7° | 64 mm | 13.6 h | 29.7° (1968) | -7.2° (1956) |
| May | 18.1° | 8.9° | 84 mm | 15.3 h | 31.3° (2018) | -2.7° (1941) |
| June | 21.4° | 12.3° | 89 mm | 16.3 h | 37.2° (2022) | 3.1° (2012) |
| July | 23.2° | 14.2° | 97 mm | 15.9 h | 36.5° (2007) | 6.2° (1964) |
| August | 23.1° | 13.8° | 91 mm | 14.4 h | 36.7° (2012) | 4.8° (1980) |
| September | 19.1° | 10.6° | 67 mm | 12.4 h | 33.1° (2024) | 1.2° (1959) |
| October | 13.6° | 6.7° | 59 mm | 10.4 h | 27.4° (2023) | -6.0° (1956) |
| November | 7.3° | 2.7° | 63 mm | 8.6 h | 19.5° (2020) | -11.8° (1998) |
| December | 3.7° | -0.4° | 67 mm | 7.7 h | 17.4° (2022) | -22.1° (1940) |
How it has changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +2.4°C.
Each vertical stripe is one year. Color encodes how much that year's annual mean differed from the long-term average. Average = each year's annual mean compared to the average of all years (1940–2026). cooler ← → warmer
Annual mean temperature
Long-term trend: +0.30°C per decade.
One point per year — the temperature averaged across the whole year. The dashed line is the least-squares long-term trend. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Seasonal warming
Dec–Feb is warming fastest: +0.49°C per decade.
Each faint line is one three-month period's average per year; the bold dashed line is its long-term trend. Different parts of the year often warm at different rates. Based on ERA5 reanalysis — modelled estimates, not station readings.
Hot days vs frost days
Days ≥ 30°C per year: 2.6 early in the record → 12.6 recently. Frost days: 88 → 47.
Thin lines are raw yearly counts; thick lines are the smoothed trend that removes year-to-year noise. The hot-day threshold is auto-picked per city so the line actually moves. Average = a centered 5-year rolling average to smooth weather noise.
Yearly hot & cold extremes
All-time high in 2022, all-time low in 1956: 37.2°C / -25.7°C.
One point per year — the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~867 mm/year on average. Last decade ran −5% vs that average. Long-term trend: +8 mm per decade.
One bar per year of total rainfall. Dashed line is the long-term average. Average = the average annual rainfall across every year of record (1940–2026).
Day-by-day grid
Each tiny square is one calendar day across the full record — ~30,000 days per city. Use the mode switch above the chart: Anomaly colors each day by how far it ran from the historical average for that date (red = warmer, blue = cooler), Daily mean temp shows the absolute mean temperature for the day (useful to see seasons and heatwaves), and Precipitation shows daily rainfall (useful to spot wet/dry seasons and droughts). Average = the long-term average for that calendar date (1940–2026).