Weather in Shanghai in July

A hard month. July is a hard month in Shanghai, and worth planning around. You should expect rain on 16 days of the month, which is more days wet than dry.

July ranks 11 of 12 — near the bottom of Shanghai's year. October is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 42 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain on 16 days, 5 of them heavy. Enough to need a plan B, not enough to need a plan around it. Pack for 31.9 °C days and 25.4 °C nights; the spread matters more here than any single number.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 24 days top 30 °C, making the heat continuous rather than occasional. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest July day reached 38.7 °C and the coldest night fell to 19 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 92 mm — roughly 62% of the month's rain in one day.

July is moderately variable: 58 mm in the driest year against 362 mm in the wettest, around an average of 148 mm. Roughly two Julys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.5 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, high enough to notice on the warm days without dominating them.

How July sits in the year

Temperatures hold steady either side: 28.3 °C in June, 31.9 here, 31.8 in August. Nothing about the timing within the month matters much.

Daylight in July

July is at or near the longest days of Shanghai's year: 14 hours of daylight, losing 0.4 hours across the month. Evenings are the real gain — dinner outdoors still happens in full light.

Sea temperature

The sea sits at about 25.9 °C in July — warm enough to stay in as long as you like. This is the warmest the water gets all year.

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.

July 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, the same number of rain days.

So: July is a compromise. October is 42 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 July.