Climate
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The city's climate is a rather dry, monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dwa), characterised by hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and generally cold, windy, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone. Yet during the winter, winds from the northwest must cross the mountains that shield the city, keeping the city warmer than locations of similar latitude in China. Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, like spring, sees little rain but is crisp and short. January averages −3.7 °C (25.3 °F), while July averages 26.2 °C (79.2 °F). Annual precipitation is around 570 millimetres (22.4 in), falling mostly in the summer months. Extremes have ranged from −27.4 to 42.6 °C (-17 to 109 °F). In 2005, the total precipitation was 410.77 millimetres (16.17 in), a majority of which occurred in the summer.
| Climate data for Beijing (1971–2000) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 1.8 (35.2) |
5.0 (41.0) |
11.6 (52.9) |
20.3 (68.5) |
26.0 (78.8) |
30.2 (86.4) |
30.9 (87.6) |
29.7 (85.5) |
25.8 (78.4) |
19.1 (66.4) |
10.1 (50.2) |
3.7 (38.7) |
17.9 (64.2) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −8.4 (16.9) |
−5.6 (21.9) |
0.4 (32.7) |
7.9 (46.2) |
13.6 (56.5) |
18.8 (65.8) |
22.0 (71.6) |
20.8 (69.4) |
14.8 (58.6) |
7.9 (46.2) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−5.8 (21.6) |
7.2 (45.0) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 2.7 (0.106) |
4.9 (0.193) |
8.3 (0.327) |
21.2 (0.835) |
34.2 (1.346) |
78.1 (3.075) |
185.2 (7.291) |
159.7 (6.287) |
45.5 (1.791) |
21.8 (0.858) |
7.4 (0.291) |
2.8 (0.11) |
571.8 (22.512) |
| % humidity | 44 | 44 | 46 | 46 | 53 | 61 | 75 | 77 | 68 | 61 | 57 | 49 | 56.8 |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 1.8 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 4.3 | 5.8 | 9.7 | 13.6 | 12.0 | 7.6 | 5.0 | 3.5 | 1.7 | 70.6 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 194.1 | 194.7 | 231.8 | 251.9 | 283.4 | 261.4 | 212.4 | 220.9 | 232.1 | 222.1 | 185.3 | 180.7 | 2,670.8 |
| Source: China Meteorological Administration | |||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Beijing
Famous quotes containing the word climate:
“Then climate is a great impediment to idle persons; we often resolve to give up the care of the weather, but still we regard the clouds and the rain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Russian forests crash down under the axe, billions of trees are dying, the habitations of animals and birds are layed waste, rivers grow shallow and dry up, marvelous landscapes are disappearing forever.... Man is endowed with creativity in order to multiply that which has been given him; he has not created, but destroyed. There are fewer and fewer forests, rivers are drying up, wildlife has become extinct, the climate is ruined, and the earth is becoming ever poorer and uglier.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“The climate has been described as “ten months winter and two months mighty late in the fall.””
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)