Burien, Washington climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Burien's center at January lows of 36°F and July highs of 76°F, a yearly mean of 52.5°F and 41.5 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Seattle (3 miles SE, 370 ft), has January lows of 38°F and July highs of 77°F.
52,046 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 47° 36°
- Feb 50° 36°
- Mar 54° 38°
- Apr 59° 42°
- May 66° 47°
- Jun 70° 52°
- Jul 76° 56°
- Aug 77° 56°
- Sep 71° 52°
- Oct 60° 45°
- Nov 51° 39°
- Dec 46° 36°
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 Burien's center.
What is each month like in Burien?
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. | Seattle high | Seattle low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47°F | 36°F | 41.7°F | 6.00 | 48°F | 38°F |
| February | 50°F | 36°F | 42.9°F | 4.09 | 50°F | 38°F |
| March | 54°F | 38°F | 46.0°F | 4.48 | 54°F | 40°F |
| April | 59°F | 42°F | 50.2°F | 3.32 | 59°F | 43°F |
| May | 66°F | 47°F | 56.5°F | 2.01 | 66°F | 49°F |
| June | 70°F | 52°F | 60.8°F | 1.52 | 71°F | 53°F |
| July | 76°F | 56°F | 65.9°F | 0.69 | 77°F | 57°F |
| August | 77°F | 56°F | 66.2°F | 0.99 | 78°F | 57°F |
| September | 71°F | 52°F | 61.3°F | 1.67 | 72°F | 54°F |
| October | 60°F | 45°F | 52.6°F | 4.07 | 61°F | 47°F |
| November | 51°F | 39°F | 45.2°F | 6.47 | 52°F | 41°F |
| December | 46°F | 36°F | 40.9°F | 6.13 | 47°F | 37°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 11.4°C, January lows of 2°C, July highs of 25°C and 1,053 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 Burien 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SeattleSeattle Tacoma International Airport | 3 mi SE | 370 ft | 53.7°F | 38°F | 77°F | 39.3 | 6 | March 2 |
| Seattle Boeing Field | 4 mi NE | 20 ft | 53.8°F | 37°F | 77°F | 36.5 | – | March 13 |
| RentonRenton Municipal Airport | 6 mi E | 29 ft | 53.6°F | 37°F | 77°F | 34.7 | – | March 13 |
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 Burien?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Seattle (3 miles SE, 370 ft). It gets 6 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 2 in half of years and the first autumn frost before November 23. Its record high is 108°F (2021) and its record low 0°F (1950) (kept since 1945).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Burien in zone 9a across its 4 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 67% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (3.4 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); August is the sunniest month (78%) and December the cloudiest (51%).
Seattle'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 Burien; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00024233; 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 Burien, ZIP code by ZIP code?
4 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Burien. On NOAA's grid 98148 is the warmest (52.6°F a year) and 98146 the coolest (52.4°F), so the city is nearly uniform. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 98146 | 9a | 52.4°F | 36°F | 76°F | 42.0 | Seattle Boeing Field (3 mi) | March 13 | November 17 |
| 98148 | 9a | 52.6°F | 36°F | 77°F | 39.4 | Seattle (1 mi) | March 2 | November 23 |
| 98166 | 9a | 52.6°F | 36°F | 77°F | 40.2 | Seattle (2 mi) | March 2 | November 23 |
| 98168 | 9a | 52.5°F | 36°F | 76°F | 40.8 | Seattle Boeing Field (3 mi) | March 13 | November 17 |
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.