Los Angeles or Lyon: which climate?
Los Angeles (United States) has a hot-summer mediterranean climate, whereas Lyon (France) 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 Los Angeles and to Lyon.
Los Angeles is warmer than Lyon by 6.1 °C in annual average: 17.4 °C against 11.3 °C.
Lyon gets more rain than Los Angeles: 961 mm per year against 352 mm.
Los Angeles gets 11.2 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.8 hours in Lyon.
Lyon has warmed by +2.5 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.7 °C in Los Angeles. Lyon is therefore warming faster than Los Angeles. Both trends are statistically significant.
Los Angeles averages 62 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 1 frost days per year; Lyon averages 14 and 54.
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 | Los Angeles | Lyon | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 17.4 °C | 11.3 °C | -6.1 °C |
| Average daily high | 23.9 °C | 15.6 °C | -8.3 °C |
| Average daily low | 12.4 °C | 7.3 °C | -5.1 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 352 mm | 961 mm | +609 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 11.2 h | 8.8 h | -2.4 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 62 d/yr | 14 d/yr | -48 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 1 d/yr | 54 d/yr | +53 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 31 d/yr | 141 d/yr | +110 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 63 % | 75 % | +12 % |
| Average peak wind | 13.3 km/h | 14.9 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.