WEATHER · CLIMATE NORMALS · 1991–2020
Shanghai Climate — Averages by Month
What the weather in Shanghai, CNaverages across a standard 30-year period. Each month's figure is the 1991–2020 mean temperature and total rainfall from the ERA5 reanalysis — the long-run normal a place settles around, not a forecast for any particular day.
Month-by-month normals
| Month | Avg temperature | Avg rainfall |
|---|---|---|
| January | 5.2 °C · coldest | 66.2 mm |
| February | 6.6 °C | 65.7 mm |
| March | 10.3 °C | 98.6 mm |
| April | 15.5 °C | 105.9 mm |
| May | 20.7 °C | 130.2 mm |
| June | 24.2 °C | 277.5 mm · wettest |
| July | 28.5 °C · warmest | 157.4 mm |
| August | 28.3 °C | 160.6 mm |
| September | 24.5 °C | 109.5 mm |
| October | 19.5 °C | 63.7 mm |
| November | 13.9 °C | 58.6 mm |
| December | 7.6 °C | 46.9 mm |
How to read these numbers
These are reanalysis normals, not readings from a single weather station. They come from the ERA5 0.25° (~25 km) global reanalysis grid, sampled at the grid cell nearest Shanghai — centred at 31.25°N, 121.50°E. A reanalysis blends observations with a physics model onto an even grid, so a coastal or mountain city's cell can read a little cooler, warmer, wetter or drier than the city centre itself. The month-to-month shape — when it's hot, when it rains — is what these normals capture best.
“Normal” means the 1991–2020 average, the current World Meteorological Organization standard period. A normal is what a place tends toward over decades — any single day, month or year can and will depart from it.