Berlin or Lyon: which climate?
Berlin (Germany) has a warm-summer humid continental climate, whereas Lyon (France) has a temperate oceanic 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 Berlin and to Lyon.
Lyon is warmer than Berlin by 2.1 °C in annual average: 11.3 °C against 9.2 °C.
Lyon gets more rain than Berlin: 961 mm per year against 606 mm.
Lyon gets 8.8 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 7.5 hours in Berlin.
Berlin and Lyon are warming at the same rate: about +2.4 °C between 1940 and 2025 on both sides.
Berlin averages 6 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 75 frost days per year; Lyon averages 14 and 54.
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 | Berlin | Lyon | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 9.2 °C | 11.3 °C | +2.1 °C |
| Average daily high | 12.7 °C | 15.6 °C | +2.9 °C |
| Average daily low | 5.8 °C | 7.3 °C | +1.5 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 606 mm | 961 mm | +355 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 7.5 h | 8.8 h | +1.3 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 6 d/yr | 14 d/yr | +8 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 75 d/yr | 54 d/yr | -21 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 127 d/yr | 141 d/yr | +14 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 77 % | 75 % | negligible |
| Average peak wind | 17.7 km/h | 14.9 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.