Dubai or Valencia: which climate?
Dubai (United Arab Emirates) has a hot desert climate, whereas Valencia (Spain) has a cold semi-arid 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 Valencia.
Dubai is warmer than Valencia by 10.5 °C in annual average: 27.4 °C against 16.9 °C.
Valencia gets more rain than Dubai: 447 mm per year against 76 mm.
Dubai gets 11.3 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 10.6 hours in Valencia.
Dubai and Valencia are warming at the same rate: about +2.5 °C between 1940 and 2025 on both sides.
Dubai averages 241 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 0 frost days per year; Valencia averages 34 and 1.
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 | Valencia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 27.4 °C | 16.9 °C | -10.5 °C |
| Average daily high | 33.7 °C | 21.2 °C | -12.5 °C |
| Average daily low | 21.7 °C | 13.1 °C | -8.6 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 76 mm | 447 mm | +371 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 11.3 h | 10.6 h | -0.7 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 241 d/yr | 34 d/yr | -207 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 0 d/yr | 1 d/yr | negligible |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 11 d/yr | 66 d/yr | +55 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 56 % | 69 % | +13 % |
| Average peak wind | 21.8 km/h | 16.4 km/h | -5.4 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.