Of our 157 European cities, Lugano and Lyon are each other's closest weather match in another country: month by month, their average highs differ by 0.5 °C on average and their rainy days by 1.7. Their busy seasons differ: in 2025 Switzerland peaked in July and France in August.
Weather, month by month
1991–2020 averages at each city's weather station.2 Of every city we publish, Lyon is the one whose year of highs and rainy days is closest to Lugano's, and the other way round.
| Month | High, Lugano | High, Lyon | Low, Lugano | Low, Lyon | Rainy days, Lugano | Rainy days, Lyon | Rain, Lugano | Rain, Lyon |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 7.1 °C | 7.1 °C | 1.2 °C | 1.1 °C | 5.3 days | 8.1 days | 66 mm | 50 mm |
| February | 9.0 °C | 9.0 °C | 1.9 °C | 1.4 °C | 5.0 days | 7.9 days | 61 mm | 42 mm |
| March | 13.5 °C | 13.8 °C | 5.2 °C | 4.2 °C | 6.3 days | 8.4 days | 76 mm | 49 mm |
| April | 16.7 °C | 17.4 °C | 8.5 °C | 7.2 °C | 9.9 days | 9.0 days | 138 mm | 69 mm |
| May | 20.8 °C | 21.5 °C | 12.4 °C | 11.2 °C | 11.6 days | 10.3 days | 178 mm | 81 mm |
| June | 24.9 °C | 25.6 °C | 16.1 °C | 15.0 °C | 10.1 days | 8.5 days | 172 mm | 74 mm |
| July | 27.3 °C | 28.2 °C | 18.0 °C | 17.0 °C | 8.2 days | 7.5 days | 158 mm | 67 mm |
| August | 26.8 °C | 28.0 °C | 17.8 °C | 16.6 °C | 9.6 days | 7.2 days | 158 mm | 66 mm |
| September | 22.1 °C | 23.1 °C | 14.2 °C | 12.8 °C | 8.7 days | 7.3 days | 165 mm | 82 mm |
| October | 16.9 °C | 17.7 °C | 10.2 °C | 9.6 °C | 9.2 days | 9.9 days | 150 mm | 100 mm |
| November | 11.6 °C | 11.4 °C | 5.7 °C | 4.9 °C | 9.3 days | 9.4 days | 167 mm | 87 mm |
| December | 7.7 °C | 7.7 °C | 2.0 °C | 2.0 °C | 6.3 days | 9.2 days | 80 mm | 54 mm |
When each country is busy
Share of each country's 2025 tourist nights by month; “quieter” marks a month under an even share of the year (8.3%).1 These are whole-country figures, not the cities'.
| Month | Switzerland | France |
|---|---|---|
| January | 7.4% (quieter) | 4.3% (quieter) |
| February | 8.5% | 4.7% (quieter) |
| March | 7.5% (quieter) | 5.0% (quieter) |
| April | 6.4% (quieter) | 7.6% (quieter) |
| May | 7.3% (quieter) | 8.6% |
| June | 9.5% | 10.1% |
| July | 12.9% | 16.6% |
| August | 12.8% | 19.3% |
| September | 9.1% | 8.7% |
| October | 7.3% (quieter) | 6.2% (quieter) |
| November | 4.2% (quieter) | 3.9% (quieter) |
| December | 7.2% (quieter) | 4.8% (quieter) |
Months that were quieter than average in Switzerland but not in France: May. The other way round: February.
More on each
- Weather in Lugano by month
- Weather in Lyon by month
- Switzerland: busy and quiet months
- France: busy and quiet months
- Similar weather, quieter: try any city and month
What this cannot tell you
- Quieter is relative. A quieter month is a smaller share of that place's own year, not fewer visitors than somewhere else.
- One weather station per city. Coasts, mountains and city centres differ; these are long-term averages, not a forecast.
- Country and prefecture totals. How busy a month is comes from the whole country or prefecture, not the city.
- 2025 only. One year of visits; events and holidays move between years.
Key takeaways
- Average highs differ by 0.5 °C a month on average; rainy days by 1.7.
- Busiest month in 2025: Switzerland July, France August.
- Quietest: Switzerland November, France November.
- What we would skip: treating alike weather as an alike trip. Prices, distances and what there is to do are not compared here.
Sources
The weather comes from the World Meteorological Organization's 1991–2020 normals and the visits from Eurostat, copied from each city's and country's own page. See how we research.
- Source: Eurostat, Nights spent at tourist accommodation establishments – monthly data, doi:10.2908/TOUR_OCC_NIM, accessed 25 September 2026. Dataset last updated by Eurostat on 22 September 2026. Extract: number of nights, NACE codes I55.1–I55.3, all guests and split by guests resident in the country and abroad, January–December 2025.
- Weather: WMO Member Nations (2023). WMO Climatological Standard Normals for 1991-2020 (NCEI Accession 0253808), the station named for each country in the table (the same station its country page uses), mean daily maximum and minimum temperature, precipitation and number of days with at least 1 mm of precipitation, normals computed from at least 24 years; also station MilanoLinate (station ID 00016080); also station BariPalese (station ID 00016270), from the same files, downloaded 24 September 2026. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. doi:10.25921/800j-vn07. Accessed 22 September 2026. Released by NOAA under CC0.
We matched, sorted and rounded the figures ourselves, and the rule for a match is ours; the agencies have not checked or endorsed these pages. Shares are rounded once, to one decimal.