Geneva or Zurich: which climate?
Geneva (Switzerland) has a warm-summer humid continental climate, whereas Zurich (Switzerland) 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 Geneva and to Zurich.
Zurich is warmer than Geneva by 0.7 °C in annual average: 9.3 °C against 8.6 °C.
Geneva and Zurich receive comparable annual rainfall, on the order of 1,405 mm.
Geneva gets 8.9 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.6 hours in Zurich.
Geneva has warmed by +3.0 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +2.7 °C in Zurich. Geneva is therefore warming faster than Zurich. Both trends are statistically significant.
Geneva averages 2 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 100 frost days per year; Zurich averages 4 and 76.
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 | Geneva | Zurich | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 8.6 °C | 9.3 °C | +0.7 °C |
| Average daily high | 12.9 °C | 13.1 °C | negligible |
| Average daily low | 4.5 °C | 5.8 °C | +1.3 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 1,405 mm | 1,375 mm | negligible |
| Sunshine / day | 8.9 h | 8.6 h | -0.3 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 2 d/yr | 4 d/yr | negligible |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 100 d/yr | 76 d/yr | -24 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 161 d/yr | 171 d/yr | +10 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 78 % | 78 % | negligible |
| Average peak wind | 9.6 km/h | 9.4 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.