Urbanization can cause local climate change including urban heat islands (UHI) and urban rainfall islands (URI). This study examines urban effects on temperature and precipitation (i.e., bias in observational data in urban areas in comparison to rural areas) in southeast China based on daily meteorological data between 1961- 2010. The urbanization levels of observational sites are characterized by continuous indicators (i.e., urban area fraction and population density) in contrast to the traditional approach that classifies sites into urban and rural categories. Statistical correlation coefficients and linear regression models are employed to analyse the relationship between urbanization levels and changes in temperature and precipitation. The results provide empirical evidence of UHI and URI in southeast China. The estimated average change rates of the minimum, mean daily temperatures and the daily temperature range due to urban effects are 0.061, 0.045 and -0.015°C per decade, respectively. While we do not observe any significant urban effect in annual precipitation, densely urbanized areas are prone to heavier extreme precipitation. The results suggest that urbanization increases the maximum daily and 3-day precipitation by about 10.4 and 14.9 millimetres, respectively. We note that the effects of urbanization on temperature and precipitation vary over the seasons.