Lisbon or Zurich: which climate?
Lisbon (Portugal) has a warm-summer mediterranean 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 Lisbon and to Zurich.
Lisbon is warmer than Zurich by 6.7 °C in annual average: 16.0 °C against 9.3 °C.
Zurich gets more rain than Lisbon: 1,375 mm per year against 586 mm.
Lisbon gets 10.5 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.6 hours in Zurich.
Zurich has warmed by +2.7 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +0.8 °C in Lisbon. Zurich is therefore warming faster than Lisbon. Both trends are statistically significant.
Lisbon averages 2 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 0 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 | Lisbon | Zurich | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 16.0 °C | 9.3 °C | -6.7 °C |
| Average daily high | 18.6 °C | 13.1 °C | -5.5 °C |
| Average daily low | 13.7 °C | 5.8 °C | -7.9 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 586 mm | 1,375 mm | +789 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 10.5 h | 8.6 h | -1.9 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 2 d/yr | 4 d/yr | negligible |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 0 d/yr | 76 d/yr | +76 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 82 d/yr | 171 d/yr | +89 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 78 % | 78 % | negligible |
| Average peak wind | 23.3 km/h | 9.4 km/h | -13.9 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.