Weather in Nanjing in October
China · 20-year averages, October
Prime time. If you get to pick your dates, October is the one. Highs average 23.6 °C, lows 12.7 °C, and rain falls on 7 days — nothing in the month is working against you.
October is the highest-scoring month of the twelve. The nearest rival is April, and the month at the other end of the year is July.
Rain on 7 days, 2 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
The averages here are honest — no hidden extremes worth planning around. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest October day reached 34.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 73 mm — roughly 133% of the month's rain in one day.
This is the volatile part. October rainfall has ranged from 6 mm to 286 mm across the twenty years measured — a 280 mm spread around an average of 55 mm. The average is real but almost no individual October looks like it, so treat the figure as the middle of a wide range rather than a forecast.
Wind is light at 8.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 73%.
How October sits in the year
The month is on the way down: 4.9 °C cooler than September, with November dropping another 6.5 °C. The first week and the last are not the same trip.
Daylight in October
11.4 hours of daylight, losing 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Nanjing's extremes of 14.2 and 10.1 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.
An inland climate
With no coast nearby, the year swings a fair way — 34.2 °C between the warmest afternoons and the coldest nights, wider than any coastal city at this latitude would manage.
How busy it gets
Peak season. Expect the highest prices of the year and to be booking well ahead.
Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.
October in Nanjing versus nearby
If Nanjing is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Hangzhou is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days. Shanghai is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, the same number of rain days.
So: October is the answer for Nanjing. If it is booked out or priced out, April is the next best thing at 5 points behind, and July is the month to keep off the shortlist.
Every month in Nanjing
| Month | High °C | Low °C | Rain days | Rain mm | Humidity % | Daylight h | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.5 | -2 | 8 | 52 | 77 | 10.3 | 41 |
| February | 10.5 | 0.1 | 9 | 64 | 78 | 11 | 52 |
| March | 15.9 | 4.1 | 8 | 70 | 75 | 11.9 | 71 |
| April | 22.1 | 10 | 9 | 95 | 73 | 12.9 | 81 |
| May | 27.5 | 15.8 | 9 | 87 | 71 | 13.8 | 79 |
| June | 30.8 | 20.6 | 12 | 181 | 74 | 14.2 | 57 |
| July | 32.2 | 24.7 | 16 | 243 | 82 | 14.1 | 40 |
| August | 31.9 | 24.1 | 15 | 155 | 81 | 13.4 | 46 |
| September | 28.5 | 19 | 9 | 94 | 78 | 12.4 | 75 |
| October | 23.6 | 12.7 | 7 | 55 | 73 | 11.4 | 86 |
| November | 17.1 | 6.1 | 7 | 59 | 75 | 10.5 | 77 |
| December | 9.6 | -0.3 | 7 | 42 | 75 | 10.1 | 48 |
See all twelve months in Nanjing, or where else to go in October.
Planning the rest of the trip
- Flight time to Nanjing how long you are actually in the air
- Nanjing time zone and the difference from home
- Days until your trip count down to the departure date