Budapest or Milan: which climate?

Budapest (Hungary) has a warm-summer humid continental climate, whereas Milan (Italy) has a humid subtropical 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 Budapest and to Milan.

Milan is warmer than Budapest by 2.8 °C in annual average: 13.2 °C against 10.4 °C.

Milan gets more rain than Budapest: 1,146 mm per year against 602 mm.

Milan gets 9.3 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.6 hours in Budapest.

Milan has warmed by +3.2 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.8 °C in Budapest. Milan is therefore warming faster than Budapest. Both trends are statistically significant.

Budapest averages 16 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 85 frost days per year; Milan averages 28 and 46.

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

IndicatorBudapestMilanDifference
Mean daily temperature10.4 °C13.2 °C+2.8 °C
Average daily high14.7 °C17.6 °C+2.9 °C
Average daily low6.3 °C9.3 °C+3.0 °C
Annual rainfall602 mm1,146 mm+544 mm
Sunshine / day8.6 h9.3 h+0.7 h
Hot days (≥ 30 °C)16 d/yr28 d/yr+12 d/yr
Frost days (< 0 °C)85 d/yr46 d/yr-39 d/yr
Rainy days (≥ 1 mm)108 d/yr115 d/yr+7 d/yr
Mean relative humidity74 %73 %negligible
Average peak wind15.1 km/h9.9 km/h-5.2 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

Budapest climateMilan climate