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Shenzhen sits on the South China Sea coast just north of Hong Kong, at about the Tropic of Cancer at approximately 22.54°N, 114.06°E. It has a warm, monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate — near-tropical — with a long, hot, extremely wet summer and a short, mild, drier winter. The South China Sea moderates its temperatures and keeps frost essentially unknown.
Summer effectively lasts around six months, with July the hottest — average highs around 31–32°C but a feels-like temperature often 3–5°C higher thanks to humidity that sits around 80–85%, described by locals as sauna-like. This is when heat, humidity and rain all peak together: prolonged monsoon rains and violent thunderstorm downpours give way to the typhoon season, when several tropical systems a month can brush the city with strong gusts, squalls and heavy rain.
Winter, roughly December to February, is short, mild and comparatively dry, with January the coolest month — average around 15–16°C, pleasant by day and only mildly cool at night. Frost is virtually unheard of thanks to the moderating sea. This dry, sunny, comfortable stretch from November to April is comfortably the best time of year in the city.
Shenzhen is one of the wetter major cities in China, receiving around 1,900 mm of rain a year, with over 80% of it falling in the rainy season from April to September. July and August are the wettest months, often topping 300 mm each, and the city sees numerous days of torrential rain, some of it delivered by typhoons. Live rainfall, humidity, and pressure readings for the city are shown in the panels above.
Two features stand out in Shenzhen's climate: the typhoon season of summer and early autumn, when Pacific storms crossing the South China Sea regularly affect the city, and a pronounced urban heat-island effect — the dense concrete, glass and asphalt of this fast-grown megacity make its centre several degrees warmer than the surrounding hills and coast.
To follow any single measurement in Shenzhen more closely, use our live instruments: the online barometer for atmospheric pressure, the thermometer for temperature, the hygrometer for humidity, the anemometer for wind speed, the wind vane for wind direction, and the rain gauge for rainfall.