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Has the climate in Beijing changed?

Beijing has warmed about 3.9°F between 1971 and 2024.

About 0.7°F per decade, measured from Beijing's official daily weather records, 1971–2024. Individual years still bounce around — some recent ones came in cool — but the long-term line has clearly risen.

Is that a lot? Beijing's warming is broadly in line with other cities in China — neither unusually fast nor unusually slow.

What has actually changed

Each card compares the 1970s (the first ten years of the record) with recent years (the last ten) — the same span the headline and the chart use.

Freezing nights
73 fewer nights
1970s
127 / yr
Recent
54 / yr
Milder winters — fewer frosts
Average temperature
+2.7°F
1970s
53.3°F
Recent
56.0°F
A steady upward drift
Hot days above 90°F
2 more days
1970s
25 / yr
Recent
27 / yr
More days of serious heat
Rainy days
about the same
1970s
64 / yr
Recent
64 / yr
Rainfall pattern about the same

Beijing's temperature, year by year

Average temperature for each year from 1971 to 2024.

50°52°54°56°58°1971: 52.3°F1972: 52.6°F1973: 52.8°F1974: 52.1°F1975: 54.1°F1976: 51.6°F1977: 52.9°F1978: 53.0°F1979: 52.1°F1980: 52.0°F1981: 54.3°F1982: 55.2°F1983: 55.5°F1984: 53.5°F1985: 52.8°F1986: 53.9°F1987: 54.2°F1988: 54.9°F1989: 55.8°F1990: 55.0°F1991: 54.6°F1992: 55.1°F1993: 55.4°F1994: 56.7°F1995: 56.1°F1996: 55.0°F1997: 55.6°F1998: 55.7°F1999: 55.7°F2000: 55.1°F2001: 55.3°F2002: 55.8°F2003: 55.4°F2004: 56.4°F2005: 55.9°F2006: 56.3°F2007: 57.3°F2008: 56.1°F2009: 56.0°F2010: 54.7°F2011: 56.2°F2012: 55.2°F2013: 54.5°F2014: 56.7°F2015: 56.0°F2016: 55.9°F2017: 56.6°F2018: 55.6°F2019: 56.5°F2020: 55.6°F2021: 55.8°F2022: 55.1°F2023: 56.7°F2024: 57.2°Flong-term trend1971198019902000201020202024
a warmer-than-average year a cooler-than-average year

Each bar is one year. Most recent years sit above the older ones. Some recent years still came in cool — warming is a slope, not a straight climb.

In day-to-day terms, that long-term shift shows up as about 32 fewer freezing nights a year compared with the 1970s.

When in the year the change shows up

How much warmer each month is now than in the 1970s. Useful if you garden or care about a particular season — otherwise the headline above already has the answer.

0.0°+0.5°+1.0°+1.5°+2.0°+2.5°January: +1.4°F+1.4JFebruary: +2.4°F+2.4FMarch: +2.1°F+2.1MApril: +1.4°F+1.4AMay: +2.1°F+2.1MJune: +1.4°F+1.4JJuly: +1.4°F+1.4JAugust: +1.6°F+1.6ASeptember: +1.6°F+1.6SOctober: +1.1°F+1.1ONovember: +0.7°F+0.7NDecember: +0.5°F+0.5D

February has warmed the most — about 2.4°F. The warming runs across the whole year, not just one season.

Methodology & sources

Temperature — 1991–2020 normals computed from 22 years of daily observations at Beijing, a weather station, about 10 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →