page_title: Beijing
section_title: Climate
hierarchical_section_title: Beijing / Geography / Climate
caption_attribution_description: English: Average annual temperatures during summer (June, July, and August) and winter (December, January, and February) at Beijing international airport, from 1970 to 2019. Data from ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/ For comparison, the Global Surface Temperature Anomaly rose approximately one degree over the same time period.
context_page_description: Beijing, alternatively romanized as Peking, is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the world's most populous capital city, with over 21 million residents within an administrative area of 16,410.5 km². The city, located in North China, is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the central government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is mostly surrounded by Hebei Province with the exception of neighboring Tianjin to the southeast; together, the three divisions form the Jingjinji megalopolis and the national capital region of China.
  Beijing is an important world capital and global power city, and one of the world's leading centers for culture, diplomacy and politics, business and economy, education, language, and science and technology. A megacity, Beijing is the second-largest Chinese city by urban population after Shanghai and is the nation's cultural, educational, and political center. It is home to the headquarters of most of China's largest state-owned companies and houses the largest number of Fortune Global 500 companies in the world, as well as the world's four biggest financial institutions.
context_section_description: Beijing has a monsoon-influenced humid continental climate (Köppen: Dwa), characterized by very hot, humid summers due to the East Asian monsoon, and brief but cold, dry winters that reflect the influence of the vast Siberian anticyclone. Spring can bear witness to sandstorms blowing in from the Gobi Desert across the Mongolian steppe, accompanied by rapidly warming, but generally dry, conditions. Autumn, similar to spring, is a season of transition and minimal precipitation. The monthly daily average temperature in January is −2.9 °C (26.8 °F), while in July it is 26.9 °C (80.4 °F). Precipitation averages around 570 mm (22 in) annually, with close to three-fourths of that total falling from June to August. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 47% in July to 65% in January and February, the city receives 2,671 hours of bright sunshine annually. Extremes since 1951 have ranged from −27.4 °C (−17.3 °F) on 22 February 1966 to 41.9 °C (107.4 °F) on 24 July 1999 (unofficial record of 42.6 °C (108.7 °F) was set on 15 June 1942).
caption: Beijing average annual temperatures from 1970 to 2019 during summer (June, July, and August) and winter (December, January, and February).  Weather station data from ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/noaa/.  For comparison the Global Surface Temperature Anomaly rose by approximately one degree over the same time period.
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