Weather in Shanghai in April

A good month. April works. It is not the peak, but nothing about it fights you. Highs average 20.3 °C, lows 10.8 °C, and rain falls on 11 days — nothing in the month is working against you.

April ranks 2 of 12 in Shanghai. Only October scores clearly higher, and the difference is small enough to be settled by price rather than weather.

Rain on 11 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: it never really gets hot: not one day in an average April reaches 30 °C. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest April day reached 31.4 °C and the coldest night fell to 2.2 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 38 mm — roughly 40% of the month's rain in one day.

April is statistically steady but not small: the year-to-year variation is modest in relative terms, yet the wettest April on record still delivered 185 mm against 42 mm in the driest. In a month this wet, even a tame spread is a lot of rain in absolute terms — the 95 mm average is a reasonable planning figure, not a promise.

Wind is light at 14.2 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 77%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How April sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 5.7 °C warmer than March, and May adds another 5 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in April

12.9 hours of daylight, gaining 0.9 hours across the month. That is between Shanghai's extremes of 14.2 and 10.1 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 13.6 °C in April — too cold to swim without a wetsuit. The sea peaks at 27.5 °C in August and bottoms out at 8.5 °C — water lags the air by a month or two, which is why the best swimming often comes after the best weather.

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.

April in Shanghai versus nearby

If Shanghai is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Hangzhou is close enough to be a coin toss — 2.2 °C warmer, 1 day more rain. Nanjing is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: April works, with October the better month by 9 points if the dates can move. If they cannot, nothing here should stop you booking.

Every month in Shanghai

See all twelve months in Shanghai, or where else to go in April.