Apache Junction, Arizona climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Apache Junction's normal year runs from 42°F December nights to 105°F July afternoons, with 12.6 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 22.2°C, December lows of 6°C, July highs of 41°C, 319 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationApache Junction (5 mi NE)
- Station IDUSC00020288
- Location33.46°N 111.48°W
- Elevation2,070 ft (631 m)
- From the center6 miles
- Population44,309
On October 23, the normal high in Apache Junction is 86°F and the normal low 58°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 9%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Apache Junction.
- Jan 67° 43°
- Feb 70° 44°
- Mar 77° 48°
- Apr 85° 53°
- May 93° 60°
- Jun 103° 69°
- Jul 105° 77°
- Aug 104° 76°
- Sep 99° 71°
- Oct 88° 60°
- Nov 76° 50°
- Dec 66° 42°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Apache Junction each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 105°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 42°F. The most precipitation falls in February (1.65 in), the least in June (0.05 in).
Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67°F | 43°F | 54.7°F | 1.54 | 5 | <1 | 2 | 10 h 10 min |
| February | 70°F | 44°F | 57.0°F | 1.65 | 5 | <1 | 2 | 11 h |
| March | 77°F | 48°F | 62.4°F | 1.33 | 4 | 1 | <1 | 12 h |
| April | 85°F | 53°F | 68.6°F | 0.52 | 2 | 9 | <1 | 13 h |
| May | 93°F | 60°F | 76.9°F | 0.26 | 2 | 23 | <1 | 13 h 50 min |
| June | 103°F | 69°F | 86.0°F | 0.05 | 1 | 29 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| July | 105°F | 77°F | 91.1°F | 1.37 | 4 | 31 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| August | 104°F | 76°F | 90.1°F | 1.50 | 6 | 31 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 99°F | 71°F | 85.2°F | 1.07 | 4 | 29 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 88°F | 60°F | 74.2°F | 0.71 | 3 | 15 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 76°F | 50°F | 62.7°F | 1.01 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 10 h 30 min |
| December | 66°F | 42°F | 53.9°F | 1.54 | 4 | <1 | 3 | 10 h |
| Year (annual) | 86°F | 58°F | 71.9°F | 12.55 | 40 | 168 | 8 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 19°C | 6°C | 12.6°C | 39 mm |
| February | 21°C | 7°C | 13.9°C | 42 mm |
| March | 25°C | 9°C | 16.9°C | 34 mm |
| April | 29°C | 11°C | 20.3°C | 13 mm |
| May | 34°C | 16°C | 24.9°C | 7 mm |
| June | 39°C | 21°C | 30.0°C | 1 mm |
| July | 41°C | 25°C | 32.8°C | 35 mm |
| August | 40°C | 25°C | 32.3°C | 38 mm |
| September | 37°C | 22°C | 29.6°C | 27 mm |
| October | 31°C | 16°C | 23.4°C | 18 mm |
| November | 24°C | 10°C | 17.1°C | 26 mm |
| December | 19°C | 6°C | 12.2°C | 39 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00020288; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
When is the best weather to visit Apache Junction?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in January, February, March, April, November and December. Of those, April has the fewest days with rain (2).
That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00020288.
When is the last frost in Apache Junction?
In Apache Junction, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after February 11 in half of years and after March 7 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before December 10 in half of years and before November 19 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- February 111 year in 10 after March 7; 9 in 10 after January 5
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- December 101 year in 10 before November 19; 9 in 10 before January 1
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 304 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 344 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after January 13 in half of springs and before December 22 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Apache Junction in zone 9b across its 2 ZIP code areas (9b in 85119, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Apache Junction's NOAA station is in zone 9b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 26°F (28 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Arizona · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00020288; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
What hardiness zone is each Apache Junction ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Apache Junction's 2 ZIP code areas are all in zone 9b. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.
Source: USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; ZIP areas in the place: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) lies in the place.
How hot and how cold does it get in Apache Junction?
In a normal year in Apache Junction, 168 days a year reach 90°F (102 of them 100°F or more), 8 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 40 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 168a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 102a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 8a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 40a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1987) is 119°F, on June 26, 1990; the lowest is 17°F, on January 14, 2007.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1993, with 22.99 in.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00020288; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00020288. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Apache Junction?
Over a year 91% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Apache Junction, 5.8 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (97%) and December the cloudiest (84%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 85% | 3.4 |
| February | 84% | 4.3 |
| March | 89% | 5.8 |
| April | 93% | 7.3 |
| May | 95% | 8.2 |
| June | 97% | 8.5 |
| July | 91% | 7.4 |
| August | 91% | 6.8 |
| September | 93% | 6.1 |
| October | 93% | 5.0 |
| November | 89% | 3.8 |
| December | 84% | 3.0 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How much heating and cooling does Apache Junction need?
A normal year in Apache Junction brings 1,216 heating degree days, 77% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 3,768 cooling degree days, 4.2 times the median (908). Two months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 8,111 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 319 | 2 |
| February | 231 | 7 |
| March | 129 | 47 |
| April | 40 | 149 |
| May | 5 | 374 |
| June | 0 | 631 |
| July | 0 | 809 |
| August | 0 | 778 |
| September | 0 | 606 |
| October | 15 | 301 |
| November | 132 | 63 |
| December | 346 | 2 |
| Year (annual) | 1,216 | 3,768 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00020288. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Has Apache Junction been warmer than normal lately?
2022 averaged 72.0°F, 0.1°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 71.9°F. 2 of the 2 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 72.8°F | +0.9°F | 13.51 |
| 2022 | 72.0°F | +0.1°F | 16.00 |
Over 32 complete years from 1989 to 2023, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.9°F per century (+0.16°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00020288; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Apache Junction's climate compare?
Apache Junction is warmer than 75 of the other 96 places with their own NOAA record in Arizona, and wetter than 53. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 71.9°F is warmer than 97%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Apache Junction is BSh: hot semi-arid steppe. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Apache Junction share this climate record?
Gold Canyon has no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of its own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.
- Gold Canyon, AZ12,488 people · 8 mi SE
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Apache Junction's climate
What is the coldest month in Apache Junction?
December, with a normal high of 66°F and a normal low of 42°F. The warmest is July (105°F by day, 77°F at night).
Does it snow in Apache Junction?
Rarely: NOAA's normal is no measurable snow a year.
What is the rainiest month in Apache Junction?
February, with 1.65 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is June with 0.05 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Apache Junction in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Apache Junction in zone 9b across its 2 ZIP code areas (9b in 85119, the largest). By the same method at Apache Junction's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 26°F (28 years, 1991-2020): zone 9b.
How late can frost come in Apache Junction?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after February 11; in one year in ten it comes after March 7. Waiting until March 7 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Apache Junction in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Arizona climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Mormon Flat, AZ7 miles from this station, 73.2°F a year
- Stewart Mountain Dam, AZ7 miles from this station, 71.1°F a year
- Mesa, AZ10 miles from this station, 72.2°F a year
- Fountain Hills, AZ17 miles from this station, 72.1°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made