Arvada, Colorado climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Arvada's center at January lows of 20°F and July highs of 88°F, a yearly mean of 50.9°F and 17.5 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Wheat Ridge (4 miles SE, 5,398 ft), has January lows of 17°F and July highs of 88°F.
121,873 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 47° 20°
- Feb 48° 21°
- Mar 56° 28°
- Apr 62° 34°
- May 71° 43°
- Jun 82° 52°
- Jul 88° 58°
- Aug 86° 56°
- Sep 79° 47°
- Oct 66° 36°
- Nov 54° 27°
- Dec 46° 19°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
The months above are NOAA's gridded normals at Arvada's center.
What is each month like in Arvada?
NOAA's grid estimates the normals every 5 km or so from the stations around each point, terrain included. It smooths between stations, so night lows at the heart of a large city can run warmer than the grid shows: at five big-city airports we compared, the grid's highs were within about 1°F of the station and its lows 1-6°F cooler. The nearest record's high and low are beside each month.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wheat Ridge high | Wheat Ridge low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47°F | 20°F | 33.2°F | 0.63 | 47°F | 17°F |
| February | 48°F | 21°F | 34.3°F | 0.78 | 48°F | 18°F |
| March | 56°F | 28°F | 41.7°F | 1.52 | 57°F | 26°F |
| April | 62°F | 34°F | 47.7°F | 2.33 | 62°F | 33°F |
| May | 71°F | 43°F | 56.8°F | 2.66 | 71°F | 43°F |
| June | 82°F | 52°F | 67.1°F | 1.84 | 83°F | 51°F |
| July | 88°F | 58°F | 72.9°F | 1.91 | 88°F | 57°F |
| August | 86°F | 56°F | 70.7°F | 1.70 | 86°F | 55°F |
| September | 79°F | 47°F | 62.9°F | 1.40 | 79°F | 45°F |
| October | 66°F | 36°F | 50.6°F | 1.18 | 66°F | 34°F |
| November | 54°F | 27°F | 40.5°F | 0.96 | 55°F | 24°F |
| December | 46°F | 19°F | 32.8°F | 0.57 | 47°F | 17°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.5°C, January lows of −7°C, July highs of 31°C and 443 mm of precipitation a year.
Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Monthly Gridded Climate Normals 1991-2020 (nClimGrid, accession 0245564); NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 station normals. The grid cell holding the city's Census center point.
What do the station records around Arvada say?
Each row is a NOAA station's own 1991-2020 normals, with the snow and frost dates the grid does not give. A record downhill or nearer the coast than the city can run warmer, one uphill cooler: compare the elevations.
| Record | Where | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheat RidgeWheat Ridge 2 | 4 mi SE | 5,398 ft | 50.3°F | 17°F | 88°F | 17.1 | 76 | May 5 |
| Ralston Reservoir | 5 mi W | 5,900 ft | 51.5°F | 23°F | 87°F | 18.7 | 63 | May 3 |
| Lakewood | 6 mi S | 5,640 ft | 50.4°F | 21°F | 86°F | 17.5 | 58 | May 3 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals; place center and population: Census Bureau 2024. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
How much snow, how late a frost, what zone and how much sun in Arvada?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Wheat Ridge (4 miles SE, 5,398 ft). It gets 76 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 5 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 5. Its record high is 105°F (2026) and its record low −24°F (1990) (kept since 1981).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Arvada in zone 6a across its 5 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 77% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.7 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); February is the sunniest month (82%) and May the cloudiest (71%).
Wheat Ridge's page has its months, frost probabilities, records by month and recent years. NOAA's grid has monthly figures only, so there are no day-by-day month pages for Arvada; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00058995; records: ACIS; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; sunshine: NASA POWER.
How does the climate vary across Arvada, ZIP code by ZIP code?
5 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Arvada. On NOAA's grid 80003 is the warmest (51.5°F a year) and 80007 the coolest (50.2°F), a spread of 1.3°F. Each row also names the nearest station record and its frost dates.
| ZIP code | Zone | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Nearest record | Last frost | First frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80002 | 6a | 51.4°F | 20°F | 89°F | 17.2 | Wheat Ridge (1 mi) | May 5 | October 5 |
| 80003 | 6a | 51.5°F | 19°F | 89°F | 16.6 | Wheat Ridge (4 mi) | May 5 | October 5 |
| 80004 | 6a | 51.4°F | 20°F | 89°F | 17.2 | Wheat Ridge (3 mi) | May 5 | October 5 |
| 80005 | 6a | 50.8°F | 20°F | 88°F | 17.4 | Wheat Ridge (5 mi) | May 5 | October 5 |
| 80007 | 6a | 50.2°F | 20°F | 87°F | 18.1 | Ralston Reservoir (3 mi) | May 3 | October 14 |
Source: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file and ZCTA centers; NOAA NCEI gridded and station normals, 1991-2020. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) is in the city; its figures are the grid cell at its center; frost dates are the nearest record's medians of 32°F.