Madrid or Paris: which climate?
Madrid (Spain) has a hot-summer mediterranean climate, whereas Paris (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 Madrid and to Paris.
Madrid is warmer than Paris by 3.3 °C in annual average: 14.2 °C against 10.9 °C.
Paris gets more rain than Madrid: 674 mm per year against 430 mm.
Madrid gets 10.3 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 7.7 hours in Paris.
Madrid has warmed by +2.4 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +1.8 °C in Paris. Madrid is therefore warming faster than Paris. Both trends are statistically significant.
Madrid averages 65 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 39 frost days per year; Paris averages 6 and 44.
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 | Madrid | Paris | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 14.2 °C | 10.9 °C | -3.3 °C |
| Average daily high | 19.8 °C | 14.7 °C | -5.1 °C |
| Average daily low | 8.7 °C | 7.3 °C | -1.4 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 430 mm | 674 mm | +244 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 10.3 h | 7.7 h | -2.6 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 65 d/yr | 6 d/yr | -59 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 39 d/yr | 44 d/yr | +5 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 72 d/yr | 129 d/yr | +57 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 61 % | 78 % | +17 % |
| Average peak wind | 13.5 km/h | 18.1 km/h | +4.6 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.