Milan or Zurich: which climate?
Milan (Italy) has a humid subtropical 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 Milan and to Zurich.
Milan is warmer than Zurich by 3.9 °C in annual average: 13.2 °C against 9.3 °C.
Zurich gets more rain than Milan: 1,375 mm per year against 1,146 mm.
Milan gets 9.3 hours of sunshine per day on average, against 8.6 hours in Zurich.
Milan has warmed by +3.2 °C between 1940 and 2025, against +2.7 °C in Zurich. Milan is therefore warming faster than Zurich. Both trends are statistically significant.
Milan averages 28 hot days (≥ 30 °C) and 46 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 | Milan | Zurich | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mean daily temperature | 13.2 °C | 9.3 °C | -3.9 °C |
| Average daily high | 17.6 °C | 13.1 °C | -4.5 °C |
| Average daily low | 9.3 °C | 5.8 °C | -3.5 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 1,146 mm | 1,375 mm | +229 mm |
| Sunshine / day | 9.3 h | 8.6 h | -0.7 h |
| Hot days (≥ 30 °C) | 28 d/yr | 4 d/yr | -24 d/yr |
| Frost days (< 0 °C) | 46 d/yr | 76 d/yr | +30 d/yr |
| Rainy days (≥ 1 mm) | 115 d/yr | 171 d/yr | +56 d/yr |
| Mean relative humidity | 73 % | 78 % | +5 % |
| Average peak wind | 9.9 km/h | 9.4 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.