Canon City, CO Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Canon City's primary NOAA station, CANON CITY.
The climate verdict for Canon City
Dryness leads the climate profile for Canon City, Colorado, with 13.7 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 52°F. At 49/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 18% of scores.
- 52°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 49/100
- comfort score, above 18% of station-mapped location scores
- 13.7"
- annual precipitation · 38" snow
- 156 days
- frost-free growing season
Canon City: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00051294 · Canon City, CO 52°F mean · 13.7" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 52°F
- RANK-MID #3,431
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Dyer
- PRCP-DRY 13.7"
- SWING-MID 40°F
- COMF-LOW 49/100
- LOAD-HEAT 5,440 HDD
- STN-1 USC00051294
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Dyer, NV (+ 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 CO station list.
- Canon City (this station) 52°F
- Cold Morgantown L&d, WV 52°F
- Hot Dyer, NV 52°F
- Near Point Marion Lo…, PA 52°F
- Near New Haven Tweed, CT 52°F
Climate Living Index · Canon City
Canon City: 36/100 · grade F
Canon City publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Canon City, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 49/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Annual temperature balance | 52.1°F · 15.4° from 67.5°F | 50/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 167 calendar days | 34/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 156 days/year | 30/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 38.3 inches/year | 30/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 13.7 in · 21.3 from 35 in | 24/100 · F |
Canon City · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Canon City's normals sit in a dry climate class: BSk
Precipitation is low relative to temperature but above true desert thresholds: cold semi-arid steppe (BSk). Class BSk is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically cold semi-arid steppe.
- Köppen code
- BSk
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 73.9°F
- Coldest month
- 33.8°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 · heating-led station
Where Canon City sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Canon City's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 50th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 86%
- Canon City's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 36th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Canon City compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Canon City's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
49 18th percentile score exceeds 18% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Above this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Above this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). Above this entry.
- 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
Canon City's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 86 complete annual observations from 1889 to 2025, CANON CITY warmed at a fitted rate of 0.05°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Canon City primary station fitted change +0.05 °C/decade
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49°F (10°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 0.6" | 6.7" | 27.4 | 0.0 |
| February | 50°F (10°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 0.6" | 6.2" | 24.6 | 0.0 |
| March | 59°F (15°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 1.0" | 6.0" | 21.8 | 0.0 |
| April | 64°F (18°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.8" | 4.1" | 12.2 | 0.0 |
| May | 73°F (23°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 58°F (15°C) | 1.6" | 0.5" | 1.9 | 1.2 |
| June | 85°F (29°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 9.4 |
| July | 89°F (32°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 2.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 17.3 |
| August | 87°F (30°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 2.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.5 |
| September | 80°F (27°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 1.2" | 0.2" | 0.2 | 3.5 |
| October | 69°F (20°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 0.9" | 3.3" | 8.4 | 0.0 |
| November | 57°F (14°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 0.6" | 5.1" | 20.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 49°F (9°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 0.5" | 6.2" | 27.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 90°F around July 15, short of 90°F on every date, while 167 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 18°F near December 23.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 11, then returns to freezing around October 28, covering 167 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is August 1, when 43% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is January 3 at 12%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 81 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 19 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 33°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Canon City.
Where Canon City Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 14 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Daily temperature swings run wider than most of the country, peaking near 33°F between the normal high and low.
Canon City 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
Snow: 6.7"
3.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.2"
4.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.0"
5.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.1"
6.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.5"
8.4 days with precipitation
7.4 days with precipitation
11.6 days with precipitation
12.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.2"
6.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.3"
5.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.1"
4.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.2"
4.1 days with precipitation
Canon City runs a summer-peaked wet season
38% of Canon City's yearly precipitation falls in June, July and August alone, against the 25% an evenly spread year would give those three months. The wettest month is July at 2.3", on a 40.1°F seasonal spread. Warm-season convection and, across the Southwest, the North American monsoon produce this shape: rain arrives in short heavy bursts during the hottest part of the year rather than as long cool-season soaking.
- Wettest three months: July, August, April, taking 44% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: December at 0.5".
- Winter share: 12% falls in December, January and February.
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A summer-peaked label means the June-August share reaches 35%; it describes timing across an average year, not any single season, and says nothing about how heavy an individual storm can be.
Canon City is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 81 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 22% of the calendar, and they carry 13.7" between them. At roughly 0.17 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is August at about 12 wet days; the driest is January at about 4.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Winter brings real snow to Canon City
Canon City averages 38.3 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 20 days that record measurable snow. That is depth accumulating on the ground, which is why it can exceed the annual precipitation figure: precipitation counts the liquid the snow melts down to, and fresh snow is mostly air.
- Annual snowfall: 38.3 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 20 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 28% of the year's precipitation.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals. The ten-to-one ratio is a convention, not a measurement: real ratios vary with temperature, so treat the share as an order of magnitude rather than an exact split.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
October 7
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 4
50% probability date
Growing Season
156 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
5,440
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
751
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CO closest to Canon City 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 (52°F here).
- Donora, PA 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Dyer, NV 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Everett, WA 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Flemington, NJ 52°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (13.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Mitchell, OR 13.7" · 0.0" off
- Nephi, UT 13.7" · 0.0" off
- Hollister, CA 13.7" · 0.0" off
- Buffalo, WY 13.8" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Canon City
heating led · dry · mid swing
Canon City's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 5,440 annual heating degree days against 751 for cooling. Its 40.1°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Canon City's frost-free season lasts about 156 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Canon City coldest normal
December
The monthly mean of 34°F (1°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Canon City typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Canon City snow peak
January
Canon City averages 38.3 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Canon City's climate
How much snow does Canon City get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Canon City get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Canon City? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Canon City's primary station: CANON CITY (USC00051294). 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 0811810). Match rule for Canon City: 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 Canon City 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.