Istanbul or Valencia: which climate?
Istanbul (Republic of Türkiye) has a hot-summer mediterranean 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 Istanbul and to Valencia.
Valencia is warmer than Istanbul by 2.4 °C in annual average: 16.9 °C against 14.5 °C.
Istanbul gets more rain than Valencia: 697 mm per year against 447 mm.
Valencia gets 10.6 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 9.5 hours in Istanbul.
Valencia has warmed by +2.4 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.6 °C in Istanbul. Valencia is therefore warming faster than Istanbul. Both trends are statistically significant.
Istanbul averages 3 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 5 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 | Istanbul | Valencia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 14.5 °C | 16.9 °C | +2.4 °C |
| Average daily high | 16.8 °C | 21.2 °C | +4.4 °C |
| Average daily low | 12.5 °C | 13.1 °C | +0.6 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 697 mm | 447 mm | -250 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 9.5 h | 10.6 h | +1.1 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 3 d/yr | 34 d/yr | +31 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 5 d/yr | 1 d/yr | negligible |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 105 d/yr | 66 d/yr | -39 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 76 % | 69 % | -7 % |
| Average peak wind | 21.4 km/h | 16.4 km/h | -5.0 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.