Climate - Lanzhou (Gansu)

The climate of Lanzhou (or Lan-chou) is arid continental, with very cold, dry winters and hot, quite rainy summers.
The city is the capital of the province of Gansu and is located in central-western China, at 36 degrees north latitude, in a mountain valley crossed by the Huang He (or Yellow River), at 1,600 meters (5,250 feet) above sea level.
The winter is dry and sunny. Even though the temperatures are low, snowfalls are rare. The cold record is -20 °C (-4 °F), set in December 1975.
The summer is the only season to experience significant rains. In periods of good weather, the temperature can reach 35 °C (95 °F), and sometimes as high as 38/40 °C (100/104 °F).
The data below refer to the city of Lanzhou, while the values of the Zhongchuan airport, which is located to the north and at 1,900 meters (6,235 feet) above sea level, are not representative of the city, being much colder.

Best Time

To visit Lanzhou, you can choose the months of May and September. In summer, temperatures are generally acceptable, but it can sometimes be very hot, and it is also the wettest season, especially in August.

Lanzhou - Climate data

The average temperature of the coldest month (January) is of -4.9 °C (23.2 °F), that of the warmest month (July) is of 22.6 °C (72.7 °F). Here are the average temperatures.
Precipitation amounts to 335 millimeters (13.2 inches) per year: it is therefore scarce. It ranges from 1 mm (0 in) in the driest month (January) to 90 mm (3.5 in) in the wettest one (August). Here is the average precipitation.
There are on average around 2425 sunshine hours per year. Here are the average hours of sunshine per day.