Weather Data Glossary

This glossary explains the weather terms used across China Temp Rankings. It is written for readers who want to understand what the maps, ranking tables, city cards, and 7-day forecast bars are showing before using the data for comparison or travel planning.

Current Temperature

Current temperature is the latest available reading for a monitored city or region. It is useful for real-time comparison, but it is only a snapshot. A city can be cool in the morning and hot in the afternoon, so current temperature should be checked together with the daily high and low.

Daily High and Daily Low

The daily high and daily low describe the expected or observed temperature range for the day based on available source fields. The high helps identify afternoon heat risk, while the low helps with early morning, late night, mountain, and plateau travel. A large high-low spread often points to dry air, elevation, clear skies, or inland conditions.

Province Ranking

Province rankings summarize monitored city data into a province-level comparison. They are useful for seeing broad national patterns, but they should not replace city-level reading. A large province can include coast, plain, basin, mountain, and plateau climates on the same page.

City Table

The city table is the most important part of a province page for local decisions. It keeps the underlying rows visible so readers can compare nearby places, identify outliers, and avoid relying only on a single province label. This is especially important in Sichuan, Yunnan, Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and coastal provinces.

Wind Speed

Wind speed is a practical comfort and travel signal. Strong wind can make cool days feel colder, increase dust or exposure, affect bridges and ferries, and make cycling or hiking harder. Wind is also useful when reading cold fronts, coastal changes, and plateau conditions.

Weather Condition Labels

Labels such as sunny, cloudy, overcast, rain, thunderstorm, snow, or fog are short descriptions from weather feeds. They are helpful, but they can be broad. Light rain in one city and heavy rain nearby may both appear as rain depending on the source. Use labels with temperature, wind, and the 7-day range.

Humidity and Comfort

Humidity affects how temperature feels. High humidity can make warm weather feel hotter and can slow cooling at night. Lower humidity can make shade and sunshine feel very different and can increase hydration needs. Humidity is one reason southern and coastal temperatures may feel different from northern inland temperatures.

Pressure, Cloud Cover, and Precipitation

Some source feeds include pressure, cloud cover, precipitation, or related fields. These signals help explain why a city may not follow a simple temperature pattern. Cloud can limit daytime heating, rain can suppress highs, and pressure changes can accompany larger weather systems. Not every page shows every field when source data is missing.

Update Time

Weather feeds do not always update every city at exactly the same minute. Neighboring cities may temporarily show readings from different update cycles. China Temp Rankings keeps the rows visible and explains limitations so readers can treat the data as a comparison tool rather than an official warning product.

Noindex Forecast Archive Pages

Future forecast date pages are kept accessible for navigation, but they are not submitted as core indexed pages because their structure is similar to today's main pages. This keeps the search focus on the most useful pages: the current national ranking, province pages, methodology pages, and evergreen weather guides.

Where to Go Next

After reading the definitions, open the national rankings, compare a province page, and read the regional climate guide for background. For how the site processes data, see Methodology.