page_title: Kraków
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Kraków / Geography / Climate
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Klasztor norbertanek, z kościołem św. Augustyna i św. Jana Chrzciciela w Krakowie English: Norbertines monastery in Kraków
context_page_description: Kraków, written in English as Krakow and traditionally known as Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. On the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Province, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 and has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, economic, cultural and artistic life. Cited as one of Europe's most beautiful cities, its Old Town was declared the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in the world.
  The city has grown from a Stone Age settlement to Poland's second-most-important city. It began as a hamlet on Wawel Hill and was reported as a busy trading centre of Central Europe in 965. With the establishment of new universities and cultural venues at the emergence of the Second Polish Republic in 1918 and throughout the 20th century, Kraków reaffirmed its role as a major national academic and artistic centre. The city has a population of about 770,000, with approximately 8 million additional people living within a 100 km radius of its main square.
context_section_description: Officially, Kraków has a Warm-summer humid continental climate, denoted by Köppen classification as Dfb, best defined as a semicontinental climate. By classification of Wincenty Okołowicz, it has a temperate climate in the centre of continental Europe with the "fusion" of different features.
  Due to its geographic location, the city may be under marine influence, sometimes Arctic influence, but without direct influence, giving the city variable meteorological conditions over short spaces of time.
  Being towards Eastern Europe and a relatively considerable distance from the sea, Krakow has significant temperature differences according to the progress of different air masses, having four defined seasons of the year. Average temperatures in summer range from 18.6 to 20.4 °C (65 to 69 °F) and in winter from −0.6 to 0.8 °C (31 to 33 °F). The average annual temperature is 10.0 °C (50 °F). In summer temperatures often exceed 25 °C (77 °F), even reaching 30 °C (86 °F), while in winter temperatures drop to −5 °C (23 °F) at night and about 0 °C (32 °F) during the day. During very cold nights the temperature can drop to −15 °C (5 °F). The city lies near the Tatra Mountains, there are often occurrences of halny blowing (a foehn wind), causing temperatures to rise rapidly, and even in winter reach up to 20 °C (68 °F).
  In relation to Warsaw, temperatures are very similar for most of the year, except that in the colder months southern Poland has a larger daily temperature range, more moderate winds, generally more rainy days and with greater chances of clear skies on average, especially in winter. The lower sun angle also allows for a larger growing season. In addition, for older data there was less sun than the capital of the country, about 30 minutes daily per year, but both have small differences in relative humidity and the direction of the winds is northeast.
  The climate table below presents weather data from the years 2000–2012 although the official Köppen reference period was from 1981–2010 (therefore not being technically a  climatological normal). According to ongoing measurements, the temperature has increased during these years as compared with the last series. This increase averages about 0.6 °C over all months. Warming is most pronounced during the winter months, with an increase of more than 1.0 °C in January.
  Sunshine data is calculated at Kraków Observatory from 1961–1990. Rest of the climate data is recorded at Kraków-Balice.
caption: Convent of Norbertine Sisters in Kraków-Zwierzyniec and the Vistula River during the summer season
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