Athens or Budapest: which climate?
Athens (Greece) has a hot-summer mediterranean climate, whereas Budapest (Hungary) has a warm-summer humid continental climate, according to the Köppen-Geiger classification.
The values compared here are normals computed over 86 complete calendar years, from 1940 to 2025, using ERA5 reanalysis data from the Copernicus programme. The same method and the same period apply to Athens and to Budapest.
Athens is warmer than Budapest by 7.1 °C in annual average: 17.5 °C against 10.4 °C.
Budapest gets more rain than Athens: 602 mm per year against 364 mm.
Athens gets 10.4 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.6 hours in Budapest.
Athens and Budapest are warming at the same rate: about +1.6 °C between 1940 and 2025 on both sides.
Athens averages 85 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 3 frost days per year; Budapest averages 16 and 85.
Data from ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Change Service), redistributed under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. Normals are recomputed whenever the archive is updated.
| Indicator | Athens | Budapest | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 17.5 °C | 10.4 °C | -7.1 °C |
| Average daily high | 22.1 °C | 14.7 °C | -7.4 °C |
| Average daily low | 13.2 °C | 6.3 °C | -6.9 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 364 mm | 602 mm | +238 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 10.4 h | 8.6 h | -1.8 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 85 d/yr | 16 d/yr | -69 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 3 d/yr | 85 d/yr | +82 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 59 d/yr | 108 d/yr | +49 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 64 % | 74 % | +10 % |
| Average peak wind | 15.4 km/h | 15.1 km/h | negligible |
A difference is only reported when it exceeds the resolution of the data. ERA5 is a reanalysis on a grid of about 31 km: two nearby cities often fall in the same cell, and below half a degree you are reading the grid, not the climate.