Similar Climates › City Pairings › Madison ≈ Lanzhou
City Pairings
loose match
Madison, Wisconsin and Lanzhou, China are a loose climate match — 11,115 km (6,907 mi) apart. Madison is Köppen zone Dfb; Lanzhou is BSk.
See Madison on the interactive map →Madison is classed warm-summer continental (Dfb) while Lanzhou is cold steppe (BSk) — different Köppen labels, but January and July still land close enough to pair. Roughly 11,115 km (6,907 mi) separates them — far enough that Lanzhou feels like another continent, close enough on the climate numbers to stand in for Madison.
It is a loose match: useful as a climate analogue for Madison, though not a perfect copy. January means differ by 4°C (Lanzhou warmer); July by 0°C (Lanzhou warmer). Rainfall shifts more: Lanzhou is 28 mm drier in January, and 20 mm drier in July.
Sunshine stays close: Lanzhou at 9.7 h/day on average versus 8.8 h/day in Madison (January 8.7 h / 5.2 h, July 10.7 h / 12.3 h). Air quality: mean PM2.5 is 29 µg/m³ in Lanzhou vs 10 in Madison (higher by 19 µg/m³). Humidity: dew point in Lanzhou runs about 4°C lower in January (-14°C vs -10°C), so the air feels drier.
January & July · °C and mm
Compare Madison and Lanzhou month by month on the interactive map →
See Lanzhou's climate twin on its own page.
On Similar Climates, Lanzhou, China is the closest distant match for Madison, Wisconsin — scored loose, about 11,115 km (6,907 mi) away.
Madison and Lanzhou are separated by roughly 11,115 km (6,907 mi) on the great-circle route.
Yes — both cities are in the same hemisphere, so summer and winter fall in the same calendar months.
No — Madison is warm-summer continental (Dfb) and Lanzhou is cold steppe (BSk), but the January and July numbers still align closely enough to pair.
Madison has a warm-summer continental climate (Dfb). January averages a high of -3°C and a low of -13°C with 30 mm of rain; July averages 28°C / 17°C and 105 mm.
Madison averages about 5.2 hours of sunshine a day in January and 12.3 hours in July.
January PM2.5 averages about 6.8 µg/m³ (US AQI 38); July averages 14.1 µg/m³ (US AQI 59).
Other close climate matches for Madison: Ottawa (fair), Novosibirsk (loose), Montreal (fair).
All warm-summer continental (Dfb) cities on Similar Climates →
Explore Madison and Lanzhou on the interactive map →