Weather in Shanghai in February

A hard month. February asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 10.3 °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 Shanghai: past the worst of the year but short of October, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain on 11 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 10.3 °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: 7 nights fall below freezing. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 23.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -5 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 28 mm — roughly 36% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 21 mm in the driest year against 163 mm in the wettest, around an average of 78 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.6 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 80%, which at 10.3 °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 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 4.3 °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 0.9 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 8.5 °C in February — 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

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

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

February 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 — within a degree on temperature, 1 day more rain. Nanjing is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain.

So: February is a compromise. October is 39 points better and is what Shanghai 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 Shanghai

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