Barcelona or Nice: which climate?

Barcelona (Spain) has a humid subtropical climate, whereas Nice (France) has a warm-summer mediterranean 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 Barcelona and to Nice.

Barcelona is warmer than Nice by 1.7 °C in annual average: 15.0 °C against 13.3 °C.

Nice gets more rain than Barcelona: 859 mm per year against 619 mm.

Barcelona and Nice are warming at the same rate: about +2.0 °C between 1940 and 2025 on both sides.

Barcelona averages 3 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 2 frost days per year; Nice averages 1 and 11.

Data from ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Change Service), redistributed under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. Normals are recomputed whenever the archive is updated.

IndicatorBarcelonaNiceDifference
Mean daily temperature15.0 °C13.3 °C-1.7 °C
Average daily high18.5 °C16.7 °C-1.8 °C
Average daily low12.0 °C10.0 °C-2.0 °C
Annual rainfall619 mm859 mm+240 mm
Sunshine / day10.2 h10.2 hnegligible
Hot days (≥ 30 °C)3 d/yr1 d/yrnegligible
Frost days (< 0 °C)2 d/yr11 d/yr+9 d/yr
Rainy days (≥ 1 mm)95 d/yr109 d/yr+14 d/yr
Mean relative humidity78 %76 %negligible
Average peak wind15.5 km/h11.1 km/h-4.4 km/h

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.

Temperature month by month

Rainfall month by month

Barcelona climateNice climate