Dubai or London: which climate?
Dubai (United Arab Emirates) has a hot desert climate, whereas London (United Kingdom) 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 Dubai and to London.
Dubai is warmer than London by 17.2 °C in annual average: 27.4 °C against 10.2 °C.
London gets more rain than Dubai: 615 mm per year against 76 mm.
Dubai gets 11.3 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 7.5 hours in London.
Dubai has warmed by +2.5 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.8 °C in London. Dubai is therefore warming faster than London. Both trends are statistically significant.
Dubai averages 241 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 0 frost days per year; London averages 1 and 36.
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 | Dubai | London | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 27.4 °C | 10.2 °C | -17.2 °C |
| Average daily high | 33.7 °C | 13.4 °C | -20.3 °C |
| Average daily low | 21.7 °C | 6.9 °C | -14.8 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 76 mm | 615 mm | +539 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 11.3 h | 7.5 h | -3.8 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 241 d/yr | 1 d/yr | -240 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 0 d/yr | 36 d/yr | +36 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 11 d/yr | 123 d/yr | +112 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 56 % | 80 % | +24 % |
| Average peak wind | 21.8 km/h | 20.4 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.