London or Munich: which climate?

London (United Kingdom) has a temperate oceanic climate, whereas Munich (Germany) has a warm-summer humid continental 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 London and to Munich.

London is warmer than Munich by 1.3 °C in annual average: 10.2 °C against 8.9 °C.

Munich gets more rain than London: 940 mm per year against 615 mm.

Munich gets 8.1 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 7.5 hours in London.

Munich has warmed by +2.4 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.8 °C in London. Munich is therefore warming faster than London. Both trends are statistically significant.

London averages 1 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 36 frost days per year; Munich averages 5 and 90.

Data from ERA5 reanalysis (Copernicus Climate Change Service), redistributed under a CC-BY 4.0 licence. Normals are recomputed whenever the archive is updated.

IndicatorLondonMunichDifference
Mean daily temperature10.2 °C8.9 °C-1.3 °C
Average daily high13.4 °C13.0 °Cnegligible
Average daily low6.9 °C5.1 °C-1.8 °C
Annual rainfall615 mm940 mm+325 mm
Sunshine / day7.5 h8.1 h+0.6 h
Hot days (≥ 30 °C)1 d/yr5 d/yrnegligible
Frost days (< 0 °C)36 d/yr90 d/yr+54 d/yr
Rainy days (≥ 1 mm)123 d/yr155 d/yr+32 d/yr
Mean relative humidity80 %77 %-3 %
Average peak wind20.4 km/h14.9 km/h-5.5 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.

Temperature month by month

Rainfall month by month

London climateMunich climate