What Climate Zone Am I In?

What Climate Zone Am I In? answers exactly that. Allow location access and the map detects where you are and names your Köppen-Geiger climate zone in plain language — from tropical rainforest to subarctic taiga. No sign-up, nothing to install.

Prefer to check somewhere else? Search any city or place, or tap anywhere on the map, and you’ll get its climate classification, what that code actually means, and a few well-known places that share the same climate. The iconic colored Köppen map is layered right on top so you can see how the world’s climates fit together.

The classification uses the high-resolution Köppen-Geiger dataset built from 1991–2020 climate normals, so it reflects recent climate rather than a decades-old average.

What Climate Zone Am I In?

How to use it

1. Allow location access when prompted — the map centers on you and shows your climate zone. On a desktop or VPN the position may be approximate; it is clearly labelled.
2. Or type any city, address, or landmark into the search box and pick a result.
3. Tap anywhere on the map to classify that exact point.
4. Read the result card: the Köppen code, the climate’s name, what it means, and example places that share it.
5. Toggle the colored climate map on or off, change its opacity, and open the legend to explore all 30 zones.

The five Köppen climate groups

Every Köppen code starts with one of five capital letters — the main climate group:

• A — Tropical: hot every month (coldest month ≥ 18 °C). Rainforest, monsoon and savanna.
• B — Arid: dry climates where evaporation exceeds rainfall — hot and cold deserts (BW) and steppes (BS).
• C — Temperate: mild mid-latitude climates; the coldest month sits between 0 °C and 18 °C. Mediterranean, humid subtropical and oceanic.
• D — Continental: warm-to-hot summers and genuinely cold winters (coldest month below 0 °C). Humid continental and subarctic taiga.
• E — Polar: no warm season (warmest month below 10 °C). Tundra (ET) and ice cap (EF).

How your climate zone is decided

Köppen needs just two ingredients for any location: its average monthly temperature and its average monthly precipitation. Those twelve pairs of numbers are run through a fixed set of thresholds — is the coldest month above or below freezing, is the warmest above 22 °C, is there a dry summer or dry winter, does total rainfall clear the desert and steppe limits? The answers pick the group, then the precipitation pattern, then the summer/winter heat, producing a two- or three-letter code.

Reading the Köppen code

Codes are read left to right. The first letter is the main group (A–E). The second describes moisture: f = no dry season, s = dry summer, w = dry winter, m = monsoon, and W/S mark desert/steppe in arid climates. The third describes heat: a = hot summer, b = warm summer, c = cool short summer, while h and k mark hot or cold arid climates. For example, Cfb = temperate, no dry season, warm summer (London, Melbourne); BWh = arid desert, hot (Cairo, Phoenix); Dfb = continental, no dry season, warm summer (Moscow, Toronto).

Where the data comes from

Climate classifications come from the high-resolution (1 km) Köppen-Geiger maps published by Beck et al. (2023), Scientific Data, using 1991–2020 climate normals, licensed CC BY 4.0. This tool samples a 0.1° version of that dataset entirely in your browser. The base map is © OpenStreetMap contributors, styled by CARTO.

Frequently asked questions

What is a Köppen climate zone?

The Köppen-Geiger system is the world’s most widely used climate classification. It sorts every place on Earth into one of about 30 zones from its monthly temperature and rainfall, grouped into five families — tropical (A), arid (B), temperate (C), continental (D) and polar (E). Each zone has a short code such as Cfb or BWh.

How do I find my climate zone?

Open the tool and allow location access — it detects where you are and shows your Köppen zone instantly. You can also search a city or address, or tap anywhere on the map. Everything runs in your browser and your location is not stored.

What do the letters like Cfb or BWh mean?

The first capital letter is the main group (A–E). The second letter describes precipitation (f = no dry season, s = dry summer, w = dry winter, W = desert, S = steppe). The third describes summer or winter heat (a = hot summer, b = warm summer, c = cool summer, h = hot, k = cold). So Cfb means temperate, no dry season, warm summer — an oceanic climate like London’s; BWh means a hot desert like Cairo’s.

What are the five main climate groups?

A — Tropical: hot all year. B — Arid: deserts and steppes where evaporation outpaces rainfall. C — Temperate: mild mid-latitude climates with moderate seasons. D — Continental: warm summers and genuinely cold winters. E — Polar: no warm season, tundra and ice cap.

Is a Köppen zone the same as a USDA hardiness zone?

No. USDA hardiness zones rank only average winter cold, for gardeners; Köppen describes the whole climate — temperature and rainfall across the year. If you garden, use our Plant Hardiness Zone Finder; for the bigger picture, Köppen is the right lens.

How accurate is this, and what time period does it use?

Classification comes from the high-resolution Köppen-Geiger dataset by Beck et al. (2023), based on 1991–2020 climate normals. The map uses a 0.1° grid (roughly 11 km cells), so a result reflects the climate of your general area rather than a single street.

Why does it say my location is approximate?

If precise GPS isn’t available — common on desktops or over a VPN — the tool falls back to your network (IP) location, which can be off by a city or even a country. It tells you honestly rather than guessing; search your place or tap the map for an exact answer.

Can climate zones change over time?

Yes. As the climate warms, some areas shift between zones — drylands expand and polar margins shrink. This tool shows recent (1991–2020) conditions; the underlying Beck et al. dataset also models 1901–2099, a future time-slider we may add.