Weather in Hangzhou in February

Shoulder season. February is shoulder season in Hangzhou — cheaper, quieter, and a genuine gamble. Highs sit at 11.8 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 9 of 12 in Hangzhou: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 12 days, 3 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 11.8 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 10 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 26.8 °C and the coldest night fell to -11.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 31 mm — roughly 34% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 23 mm in the driest year against 191 mm in the wettest, around an average of 90 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 8.4 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 11.8 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.7 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 4.7 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in February

11.1 hours of daylight, gaining 0.8 hours across the month. That is between Hangzhou's extremes of 14.1 and 10.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 33.1 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.

How busy it gets

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

February in Hangzhou versus nearby

If Hangzhou is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Shanghai is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 1 day less rain. Nanjing is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 3 days less rain.

So: February is a compromise. October is 36 points better and is what Hangzhou is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Hangzhou

See all twelve months in Hangzhou, or where else to go in February.