Hangzhou weather by month — averages, rainfall & climate trends
Hangzhou grew up around West Lake at the Grand Canal's southern end, and its year still moves with the water — June's plum rains, humid monsoon summers and the surge of the Qiantang tidal bore. 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 Hangzhou, China.
Today vs average
+0.5°Cabout average
How it’s changed
Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.
Right now
28.1°
35°28°
33°28°34°28°36°29°37°29°38°30°39°30°On this date — July 19
About average
- Record high: 40.8° · 2009
- Record low: 21.3° · 1943
- One year ago: 34.1°
Every July 19 in history — coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each July 19 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 Hangzhou is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 30.29°N, 120.16°E, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 30.29°N, 120.16°E
- Time zone
- Asia/Shanghai
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
18 of the last 31 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +0.6°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
Hangzhou sits in northwestern Zhejiang province, in the Yangtze River Delta at the southern terminus of the Grand Canal, its centre wrapped around West Lake, with the Qiantang River passing just to the south. The climate is humid subtropical (Köppen Cfa), swinging through four well-marked seasons: summers are drawn-out, sweltering and sticky, while winters turn chilly and grey with less rain and the occasional snowfall. The Asian monsoon sets the rhythm, delivering the plum rains in June.
Late summer carries typhoon risk: storms in August and September usually make landfall on Zhejiang's southern coast rather than striking the city head-on, while the Qiantang River's towering tidal bore remains a spectacle in its own right. Heat is the sharper modern concern — August 2024 brought exceptionally intense heat, and China's summer-2022 heatwave dragged on for more than nine weeks. The country has warmed faster than the global average since the 1950s.
The year peaks in July, at 29.5°C over the day and around 33.5°C by mid-afternoon. In a typical recent year, around 100 days reach 30°C or more. At the other extreme, January averages 4.7°C, with typical overnight lows of 1.1°C.
Hangzhou picks up roughly 1524 mm a year, with a peak of 314 mm in June and as little as 49 mm in December.
Over the full record (since 1940), the annual mean temperature in Hangzhou has risen by 1.7°C between its first decade and its last. Where the first decade averaged 35 frost days a year, the recent one saw about 14.
Climate graph (climograph)
July is the warmest month, January the coolest — a yearly swing of 25°C. Wettest month: June (~314 mm). Whole year averages ~1524 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.
Hangzhou 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 | 8.5° | 1.1° | 66 mm | 10.2 h | 25.4° (1949) | -14.5° (1940) |
| February | 10.1° | 2.8° | 81 mm | 10.9 h | 30.0° (2009) | -15.7° (1969) |
| March | 14.8° | 7.2° | 119 mm | 11.8 h | 35.4° (2025) | -3.7° (1956) |
| April | 20.9° | 12.9° | 142 mm | 12.7 h | 34.8° (2023) | 2.2° (1957) |
| May | 25.5° | 17.9° | 196 mm | 13.5 h | 39.6° (2011) | 7.9° (1965) |
| June | 28.7° | 22.2° | 314 mm | 13.9 h | 40.4° (2009) | 13.4° (1987) |
| July | 33.5° | 26.2° | 162 mm | 13.8 h | 43.0° (2009) | 18.2° (2015) |
| August | 33.1° | 25.7° | 132 mm | 13.1 h | 43.9° (2024) | 18.2° (1998) |
| September | 28.3° | 21.5° | 131 mm | 12.2 h | 41.5° (1946) | 11.6° (2012) |
| October | 23.0° | 15.4° | 72 mm | 11.2 h | 38.9° (2022) | 2.8° (1978) |
| November | 17.3° | 9.5° | 60 mm | 10.4 h | 32.2° (2023) | -4.5° (1979) |
| December | 11.1° | 3.2° | 49 mm | 10.1 h | 25.2° (1968) | -14.1° (1985) |
How it has changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +1.7°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: +0.22°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
Mar–May is warming fastest: +0.30°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: 78.1 early in the record → 100.0 recently. Frost days: 33 → 14.
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 2024, all-time low in 1969: 43.9°C / -15.7°C.
One point per year — the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~1524 mm/year on average. Last decade ran −1% vs that average. Long-term trend: +2 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).