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Xining has a monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental climate.
Warm summers and long, cold winters with snow. Rain in every month — here's what that means in plain terms.
What this climate feels like
The four things a regular visitor actually wants to know:
Highs near 77°F in July. About 1 days a year above 90 °F.
Lows near 6°F in January. About 164 freezing nights a year.
About 17 in of rain a year. Wettest in August.
A roughly even mix of sun and cloud.
What "monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental" means
Climate scientists sort every place on Earth into about 30 climate types, based on how hot, cold, wet and dry it is across the year. Xining's type — monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental — sits in the broad family of four-season continental climates.
Researchers write climate types as a short letter code. Here is what each letter means:
Cities with the same climate as Xining
A monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental climate (Dwb) — these recognizable cities share it. If you know one of them, you know roughly what to expect.
Xining sits near a climate boundary
This city sits right on the line between monsoon-influenced warm-summer humid continental and the next type along. Different climate maps file it on different sides of that line; the lived weather doesn't change at the line — it's a naming boundary, not a wall.
Has Xining's climate type changed?
A climate type is a coarse bucket. It can hold steady for years while the weather inside it shifts — or tip into the next bucket.
What this climate means for you
Soy, corn, hardy fruit; a short but productive monsoon-fed growing season.
Summer is the comfortable window. Winter is harsh and dry; spring and autumn brief.
Long, dry, bitter winters and warm, humid summers — the dramatic Far Eastern continental pattern.
Where these numbers come from
The climate type and the month-by-month figures on this page are computed from Xining's measured 30-year climate normals (1991–2020) — the same official records behind Xining's main climate page, so the two always agree.
Long-range climate maps measure things slightly differently and can place a city in a neighbouring category. Where they differ, this page uses the measured station record as the climate today.
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 25 years of daily observations at Xining, a weather station, about 1 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.