Geography and climate of Paris

Paris is located at 48°52′00?N, 2°19′59?E (48.866667, 2.333056). The city straddles a north-bending arc of the river Seine, which features two inhabited islands, the Ile Saint-Louis and the larger Ile de la Cite which is the heart and origin of the city. The altitude of Paris varies, with several prominent hills, of which the highest is Montmartre at 130 metres (426½ ft) above sea level. The highest elevation in the urban area of Paris is in the Forest of Montmorency (Val-d’Oise departement), 19.5 km. (12 miles) north-northwest of the center of Paris as the crow flies, at 195 metres (640 ft) above sea-level.

The city (commune) of Paris proper has an area of 105.397 square kilometres (40.69 mi²), and is only the the 113th largest commune in France (out of 36,782). Excluding its outlying parks of Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes, the city’s actual area is 86.928 square kilometres (33.56 mi²), in the form of an oval with a circumference of 35.5 kilometres (22 miles). This oval extends 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) from north to south, and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from east to west.

The administrative borders of the commune have remained largely unchanged since 1860, when Napoleon III and the prefect Haussmann doubled the size of the city to 78 km² (30.1 mi²) by annexing all the land enclosed within the city’s then distant ring of fortifications. Several suburban communes such as Montmartre and Auteuil were incorporated in whole or in part. The city was divided into the twenty arrondissements which still exist today. The city limits have changed only marginally since then, reaching the 86.9 km² figure indicated above in the 1920s. In 1929 the Bois de Boulogne and Bois de Vincennes were also officially incorporated into the city.

The urban area (unite urbaine) (contiguous built-up area) covers 2,723 km² (1,051.4 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 26 times as large as the commune of Paris. The metropolitan area (aire urbaine) (built-up area plus the commuter belt) reaches beyond the surrounding Ile-de-France administative region to cover 14,518 km² (5,605.5 mi²) (INSEE 1999), or about 138 times as large as the commune of Paris.

The lowest temperature ever recorded in Paris (since meteorological records began in 1873) was on December 10, 1879: -23.9 °C (-11.0 °F) in central Paris and -25.6 °C (-14.1 °F) in the southeastern suburb of Saint-Maur-des-Fosses. The highest recorded temperature in central Paris was 40.4 °C (104.7 °F) in Parc Montsouris on July 28, 1947. During the European heat wave of 2003, which caused the death of many elderly people in France, the temperature in central Paris reached “only” 38.1 °C (100.6 °F) (Parc Montsouris) and 40.2 °C (104.4 °F) at Le Bourget Airport in the northern suburbs. The highest recorded minimum temperature at night in Paris was 25.5 °C (77.9 °F) in Parc Montsouris on August 11 and August 12, 2003.