Temperature records for Hokkaido
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Hokkaido, ―
Stations in Hokkaido
All-time records in Hokkaido
Records among the stations on this page (statistics as of November 1, 2026).
| Record | Station | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Highest temperature | Obihiro | 38.8°C | Jul 24, 2025 |
| Lowest temperature | Asahikawa | -41.0°C | Jan 25, 1902 |
| Heaviest daily rainfall | Tomakomai | 447.9 mm | Aug 1, 1950 |
Range of records by station
Each bar is one station: the left dot is its record low and the right dot its record high. The statistical period differs by station, depending on when observations began or the station moved. The dates are on each station's page.
The climate of Hokkaido
Hokkaido's climate is hard to sum up in a few words: its stations show up at both national extremes, for summer heat and for winter cold alike. Obihiro on the Tokachi Plain observed 38.8°C on July 24, 2025, while Asahikawa in the Kamikawa Basin holds -41°C from January 25, 1902, the lowest record low among all the stations covered on this site. Both lie in inland basins surrounded by mountains, and the same terrain favors both extremes: summers when sunshine traps the heat, and winters when the ground loses its heat on clear, calm nights.
The coastal side follows an entirely different calendar from the interior. On the 30-year average for 1996–2025, the August maximum is 26.9°C in Sapporo but 21.3°C in Nemuro, which is affected by a cold sea and sea fog, a spread of 5.6°C within Hokkaido alone. The January minimum also differs by 12.8°C, from -3.4°C at Esashi on the Sea of Japan side, whose coast is warmed by the Tsushima Warm Current, to -16.2°C at Etanbetsu, inland to the northwest of Asahikawa. Even within Hokkaido, the gap is wide enough to put two places a full season apart.
Precipitation is not uniform either. The daily rainfall record is 447.9 mm at Tomakomai on the Pacific side on August 1, 1950, a day when the coast took the full force of moist air flowing in from the south. On the other hand, the annual share of days with less than 1 mm of precipitation is far apart, 75.6% in Obihiro and 49.7% in Etanbetsu, and the numbers directly reflect the contrast between dry Tokachi and inland Kamikawa, where snow clouds stream in again and again.
Record values in this description are based on data collected as of September 2026, and the normal statistics on the 30 years 1996–2025.
Monthly normals for Hokkaido (Sapporo)
The normals for Sapporo represent the stations in Hokkaido. Normals for the other stations are on each station's page.
Temperature (monthly normals)
The lines show monthly normals: the upper line is the monthly mean of the daily high and the lower line the monthly mean of the daily low, and the middle line is the monthly mean temperature. Touch the point for a month to read its values. Normals are the 1991–2020 average.
Precipitation (monthly normals, mm)
Table of monthly normals
| Month | Mean | High | Low | Precipitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -3.2 | -0.4 | -6.4 | 108.4 |
| Feb | -2.7 | 0.4 | -6.2 | 91.9 |
| Mar | 1.1 | 4.5 | -2.4 | 77.6 |
| Apr | 7.3 | 11.7 | 3.4 | 54.6 |
| May | 13.0 | 17.9 | 9.0 | 55.5 |
| Jun | 17.0 | 21.8 | 13.4 | 60.4 |
| Jul | 21.1 | 25.4 | 17.9 | 90.7 |
| Aug | 22.3 | 26.4 | 19.1 | 126.8 |
| Sep | 18.6 | 22.8 | 14.8 | 142.2 |
| Oct | 12.1 | 16.4 | 8.0 | 109.9 |
| Nov | 5.2 | 8.7 | 1.6 | 113.8 |
| Dec | -0.9 | 2.0 | -4.0 | 114.5 |
Temperatures are in degrees Celsius (°C) and precipitation in mm. Blank cells have no normal.
Annual mean temperature (1996–2025)
The yearly average of the daily mean temperature (the line is broken in years with many missing values). Observing conditions at Sapporo changed on September 26, 2001; December 4, 2007; June 25, 2008 (for example, a relocation or new instruments), so the statistics may not be continuous across those dates.
The normals listed here are averages over the 30 years from 1991 to 2020. They are fixed values that stay the same until the next revision of the normals, and they show how warm or cold that month usually is in that area.