Discover the best time of year, based on historical climate, temperature, and precipitation.
The best weather in Shanghai is from April, May, October. — consistent weather climate
🌧Rainy
| Score | 34 | 37 | 61 | 84 | 79 | 34 | 21 | 35 | 64 | 86 | 73 | 43 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Climate | Cold | Cold | Cold | Cool & rainy | Humid | Rainy | Hot & rainy | Hot & rainy | Rainy | Pleasant | Mild | Cold |
| Temperature | 2–9°C | 3–11°C | 7–16°C | 11–20°C | 16–25°C | 21–28°C | 25–32°C | 26–32°C | 21–28°C | 16–23°C | 11–18°C | 3–11°C |
| Feels like | -2–6°C | -1–7°C | 4–14°C | 10–20°C | 16–26°C | 23–31°C | 30–37°C | 30–37°C | 24–31°C | 15–23°C | 9–16°C | 0–8°C |
| Precipitation | 68mm 9 days | 70mm 9 days | 81mm 9 days | 103mm 9 days | 134mm 10 days | 269mm 17 days | 228mm 16 days | 145mm 14 days | 177mm 14 days | 79mm 8 days | 79mm 8 days | 45mm 7 days |
| Sunshine | 5.8h ☀︎ 56% | 5.8h ☀︎ 52% | 6.5h ☀︎ 54% | 7.0h ☀︎ 54% | 6.9h ☀︎ 50% | 4.8h ☀︎ 34% | 7.6h ☀︎ 54% | 10.1h ☀︎ 76% | 7.8h ☀︎ 63% | 7.0h ☀︎ 61% | 6.1h ☀︎ 58% | 6.4h ☀︎ 63% |
| Wind | N · 18 km/h | NE · 19 km/h | E · 20 km/h | E · 20 km/h | SE · 19 km/h | SE · 17 km/h | SE · 19 km/h | SE · 18 km/h | NE · 18 km/h | NE · 18 km/h | NE · 18 km/h | N · 17 km/h |
| Humidity (%) | 75% | 75% | 76% | 76% | 77% | 83% | 83% | 80% | 81% | 76% | 77% | 74% |
| Day length | 10.4h | 11.1h | 12.0h | 12.9h | 13.7h | 14.1h | 13.9h | 13.3h | 12.4h | 11.4h | 10.6h | 10.2h |
Shanghai celebrates Chinese New Year with the spectacular Yu Garden Lantern Fair, transforming the old town into a sea o…
One of Asia's most prestigious film festivals brings red-carpet premieres, star-studded screenings, and industry talks t…
Held each spring, Shanghai Fashion Week fills showrooms and pop-up venues across the city with runway shows from Chinese…
This ATP Masters 1000 tournament draws the world's top tennis players to Qizhong Stadium each October, when Shanghai's w…
Tens of thousands of runners take to Shanghai's streets each November for one of Asia's largest marathons, starting near…
While standard guides crown October for its textbook autumn chill, May is the true masterstroke for visiting Shanghai: a rare window of easy warmth and green plane-tree canopies before the summer deluge, untangled from the crushing crowds that choke the city later in the year.
Shanghai is thirty million lives unfolding along the serpentine bend of the Huangpu River, where neoclassical stone façades from the treaty-port era stare across black water at the neon spires of Pudong. Built out of Yangtze River mud and sheer commercial momentum, it is China's financial engine and one of the dense epicenters of modern human movement. Because everything here happens at massive scale, timing your arrival is not merely an aesthetic concern—it governs whether you will experience an intoxicating global capital or spend your journey pressed against subway barricades. Mainstream travel advice invariably directs you to autumn, seduced by crisp air and low humidity. That advice looks at the weather station and ignores what happens when the entire country decides to share the sidewalk with you.
The travel consensus treats October as untouchable, but October is an open secret shared with legions of tour groups and convention crowds. The real insider victory belongs to May. By late spring, the city's dense network of London plane trees across the French Concession has unfurled into a vibrant green ceiling, filtering soft sunlight over quiet residential alleys, brick villas, and art deco compounds. The air carries an effortless warmth—warm enough for linen shirts and lingering late into the evening outside neighborhood cafes, but still clear of the oppressive tropical heat that defines midsummer.
Critically, May is an unexpected lull in Shanghai’s visitor calendar. The overwhelming surge of autumn business travel and holiday migrations disappears. You can lean against the railing along the Bund at twilight without fighting for every inch of river view, and you can drift through the older alleys of the city without being propelled forward by an unrelenting tide of elbows. April has its own stylish buzz, hosting the runway shows of Shanghai Fashion Week when designers and creative crowds take over repurposed industrial spaces, but April often stumbles through sudden downpours and erratic spring chill. May settles the atmosphere into sustained warmth without extracting the price of peak-season gridlock.
Summer in the delta begins with soaking water and ends with fierce heat. June announces the arrival of the Meiyu, or plum rain season—days of thick, slate-grey skies and heavy downpours that saturate the city's concrete. The Shanghai International Film Festival injects an electric indoor buzz into downtown cinemas during June, but exploring the streets on foot requires dodging localized street flooding and weathering sudden, torrential squalls that turn umbrellas inside out.
By July and August, the lingering rain yields to an unforgiving urban greenhouse. Moisture rising off the Huangpu River collides with baking asphalt, trapping the city in a dense blanket of humidity. Walking even two blocks between subway exits leaves you thoroughly drenched. Daily life sensibly retreats indoors into deep subterranean transit concourses and air-conditioned towers, only spilling back outside well after dark when river breezes bring faint relief to the waterfront promenade. Unless you thrive on tropical steam and nocturnal wandering, the peak summer months represent Shanghai at its most physically exhausting.
Autumn produces the weather that looks flawless in photographs. By October, the oppressive furnace finally switches off. Skies turn an unblemished pale blue, humidity drops away, and the Rolex Shanghai Masters brings top-tier tennis to Qizhong Stadium under crisp, invigorating sunshine. On paper, it seems like the ideal time to land.
In reality, you will share that crystalline sky with peak crowds. November is the single most congested month of Shanghai's entire year. Hotel lobbies churn with corporate delegates, and the pavements groan under the weight of autumn tourism. The Shanghai International Marathon sends tens of thousands of runners tearing through the heart of the city, setting off major street closures from the Bund outward and pushing central transport to absolute capacity. Autumn undoubtedly delivers pristine conditions, but you pay for every clear day with long lines, packed metro transfers, and the constant friction of an overcrowded metropolis.
Winter along the delta has a piercing bite that outstrips what the thermometer suggests. Coastal river dampness cuts cleanly through heavy wool, and historical architecture often lacks modern heating, making drafty interiors feel every bit as sharp as the outdoors. December through February is largely grey, brisk, and demanding on the senses.
The undeniable compensation arrives during Chinese New Year in January or February, when Yu Garden hosts its famous lantern festival. Mythical creatures and towers of crimson paper glow above the Ming-dynasty roofs and zig-zag stone footbridges. It is a stunning visual feast, but it demands patience: domestic travelers arrive in vast numbers to witness the holiday light, even as smaller independent shops and neighborhood eateries temporarily shutter for family reunions. March brings a tentative spring thaw, but persistent rain and chilly winds make it a prelude to the season rather than a prime window to arrive.