Barstow, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Explore NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 climate normals → and a clearly labeled PlainClimate comfort calculation
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Barstow's primary NOAA station, BARSTOW.
The climate verdict for Barstow
Dryness leads the climate profile for Barstow, California, with 5.0 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 66°F. It scores 77/100 for climate comfort (good), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 70% of them.
- 66°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 77/100
- comfort score, above 70% of station-mapped location scores
- 5.0"
- yearly precipitation total
- 274 days
- frost-free growing season
Barstow: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00040521 · Barstow, CA 66°F mean · 5.0" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 66°F
- RANK-UPPER #6,106
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Aguila
- PRCP-ARID 5.0"
- SWING-MID 41°F
- COMF-TOP 77/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USC00040521
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Aguila, AZ (+ 0 °F mean)
Instrument codes from this station's NOAA 1991–2020 normals, mean temperature, corpus warmth rank, photo-finish peer station, precipitation band, seasonal swing, comfort composite, degree-day load, and field book, not a livability rating.
Mean-temperature neighbourhood
Nationwide NOAA normal poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every CA station list.
- Barstow (this station) 66°F
- Hot Eastman, GA 66°F
- Near Aguila, AZ 66°F
- Near Centerville, TX 66°F
- Near Corsicana, TX 66°F
Climate Living Index · Barstow
Barstow: 69/100 · grade C
Barstow publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Barstow, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 77/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 274 days/year | 96/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 65.7°F · 1.8° from 67.5°F | 94/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.3 inches/year | 88/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 119 calendar days | 65/100 · C |
| Precipitation balance | 5.0 in · 30.0 from 35 in | 1/100 · F |
Barstow · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Barstow's normals sit in a dry climate class: BWh
Annual precipitation falls well below the aridity threshold for this temperature regime, so the normals classify as hot desert (BWh). Class BWh is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically hot desert.
- Köppen code
- BWh
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 86.9°F
- Coldest month
- 46.2°F
Source: official public datasets monthly normals (1991–2020) at the city’s primary station. This is a station classification, not a mapped regional consensus.
National standing · balanced station
Where Barstow sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Barstow's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 11% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Barstow sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 99%
- Barstow's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 39th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Barstow compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Barstow's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
77 Top 30% score exceeds 70% of 6,189 station-mapped location scores
- 0–10: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 10–20: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 20–30: 96 station-mapped locations (2%). Below this entry.
- 30–40: 280 station-mapped locations (5%). Below this entry.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). Below this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Below this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). This entry sits in this band.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Above this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59°F (15°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 10.1 | 0.0 |
| February | 63°F (17°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 1.0" | 0.0" | 4.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 70°F (21°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 1.1 | 0.2 |
| April | 77°F (25°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.2 | 2.9 |
| May | 86°F (30°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 71°F (22°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 12.4 |
| June | 96°F (36°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 81°F (27°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 25.2 |
| July | 102°F (39°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 87°F (31°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 30.8 |
| August | 101°F (38°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 86°F (30°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 30.5 |
| September | 93°F (34°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 78°F (26°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 24.5 |
| October | 81°F (27°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 6.4 |
| November | 68°F (20°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 3.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 57°F (14°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 0.8" | 0.3" | 12.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Barstow runs from a mild 34°F around December 25 to 103°F at the peak near July 24, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from May 29 through September 24, covering 119 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 17 to November 10.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
No freezing date
Not one calendar date in the 1991–2020 record carries a normal low at or below 32°F. The coldest normal low of the year is 34°F around December 25.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 20, when 14% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 13 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 22 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 13 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 31°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Barstow.
Where Barstow Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 119 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 5 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Barstow earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
3.9 days with precipitation
4.2 days with precipitation
2.6 days with precipitation
1.3 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
1.5 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
1.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
3.0 days with precipitation
Barstow's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 51% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 9%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 40.7°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 1.0"
- Driest month
- June, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, December, January (51% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
How Barstow's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 22 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 5.0" between them, or roughly 0.23 inches on a typical wet day. That sits in the middle band: neither the many-light-days pattern of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes, nor the few-heavy-events pattern of the Gulf and the desert Southwest.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year and say nothing about the heaviest single storm on record.
Snow reaches Barstow, but rarely amounts to much
The normals record 0.3 inches of snow a year here, most likely in December. That is a real but marginal amount: enough that snow is part of the local record, not enough to define the winter.
A figure in this range usually reflects a handful of events that melt quickly rather than a season of accumulation; about 0 days a year record any measurable snow at all.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals. An average across thirty years can smooth away a single heavy winter, so a small annual figure does not mean a significant snowfall is impossible.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
November 23
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
February 22
50% probability date
Growing Season
274 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,324
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
2,615
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Barstow on two NOAA annual-normal axes (mean temperature and annual precipitation). Chip rows use distinct link sets.
Closest by average temperature
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual mean temperature (66°F here).
- Aguila, AZ 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Centerville, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Corsicana, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Eastman, GA 66°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (5.0" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Pahrump, NV 5.0" · 0.0" off
- Tonopah, NV 4.8" · 0.2" off
- Las Vegas, NV 4.8" · 0.2" off
- Quartzsite, AZ 4.6" · 0.4" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Barstow's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · mid swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 5.0 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Barstow's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 40.7°F. The annual average is 66°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Heating and cooling both register in Barstow's normal, at 2,324 and 2,615 degree days respectively. Neither total exceeds the other by more than two to one, so the record is better read as a mixed-demand calendar than as heating-led or cooling-led.
Barstow has a long frost-free window of roughly 274 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
Barstow wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (5.0 inches).
Barstow driest normal
June
June is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Barstow's climate
How dry is Barstow? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Barstow get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Barstow? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Barstow's primary station: BARSTOW (USC00040521). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The 2024 Census Gazetteer identifies the exact name-and-state match as an incorporated place (GEOID 0604030). Match rule for Barstow: exact normalized name + state only, no fuzzy expansion, so nearby differently spelled facilities stay unmatched.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Barstow comes from its primary NOAA station record. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor - each value is rendered from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 1991–2020 normals.