Miami or Zurich: which climate?

Miami (United States) has a tropical savanna 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 Miami and to Zurich.

Miami is warmer than Zurich by 15.1 °C in annual average: 24.4 °C against 9.3 °C.

Zurich gets more rain than Miami: 1,375 mm per year against 1,041 mm.

Miami gets 10.6 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 +1.0 °C in Miami. Zurich is therefore warming faster than Miami. Both trends are statistically significant.

Miami averages 45 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.

IndicatorMiamiZurichDifference
Mean daily temperature24.4 °C9.3 °C-15.1 °C
Average daily high26.7 °C13.1 °C-13.6 °C
Average daily low22.3 °C5.8 °C-16.5 °C
Annual rainfall1,041 mm1,375 mm+334 mm
Sunshine / day10.6 h8.6 h-2.0 h
Hot days (≥ 30 °C)45 d/yr4 d/yr-41 d/yr
Frost days (< 0 °C)0 d/yr76 d/yr+76 d/yr
Rainy days (≥ 1 mm)162 d/yr171 d/yr+9 d/yr
Mean relative humidity75 %78 %+3 %
Average peak wind21.3 km/h9.4 km/h-11.9 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.

Temperature month by month

Rainfall month by month

Miami climateZurich climate