Weather in Hangzhou in May

A good month. May works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 27.4 °C, lows 16.4 °C, and rain falls on 13 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

May ranks 4 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 13 days, 4 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Nothing specialised needed — this is the month you pack for the trip rather than for the weather.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 7 days top 30 °C — hot spells arrive, but they break. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest May day reached 38.2 °C and the coldest night fell to 7.7 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 53 mm — roughly 43% of the month's rain in one day.

May is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest May on record still delivered 246 mm against 33 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 124 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 8.1 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 76%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How May sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 4.9 °C warmer than April, and June adds another 2.7 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in May

May is at or near the longest days of Hangzhou's year: 13.7 hours of daylight, gaining 0.6 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

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

Busy. Popular without being frantic; book the things you care about, improvise the rest.

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

May 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 — 2.1 °C cooler, 2 days less rain. Nanjing is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 4 days less rain.

So: May works, with October the better month by 14 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Hangzhou

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