Carefree, AZ 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 Carefree's primary NOAA station, CAREFREE.
The climate verdict for Carefree
Carefree, Arizona is cooling-led and dry. Its 12.6 inches of annual precipitation pairs with an annual average of 71°F. It scores 90/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 91% of them.
- 71°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 90/100
- comfort score, above 91% of station-mapped location scores
- 12.6"
- precipitation, annual total
- 315 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Carefree: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00021282 · Carefree, AZ 71°F mean · 12.6" precip
TEMP-HOT · RANK-WARM · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-TOP · LOAD-COOL · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-HOT 71°F
- RANK-WARM #6,587
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Cross
- PRCP-DRY 12.6"
- SWING-MID 37°F
- COMF-TOP 90/100
- LOAD-COOL 3,512 CDD
- STN-1 USC00021282
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Cross, TX (+ 0.2 °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 AZ station list.
- Carefree (this station) 71°F
- Hot Eloy, AZ 71°F
- Near Cross, TX 71°F
- Cold Twentynine Palms, CA 70°F
- Near Terlingua, TX 70°F
Climate Living Index · Carefree
Carefree: 68/100 · grade C
Carefree publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Carefree, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 90/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 315 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 70.6°F · 3.1° from 67.5°F | 91/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 144 calendar days | 51/100 · D |
| Precipitation balance | 12.6 in · 22.4 from 35 in | 20/100 · F |
Carefree · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Carefree's normals sit in a dry climate class: BSh
Precipitation is low relative to temperature but above true desert thresholds: hot semi-arid steppe (BSh). Class BSh is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically hot semi-arid steppe.
- Köppen code
- BSh
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 89.7°F
- Coldest month
- 52.5°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 · cooling-led station
Where Carefree sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Carefree's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 4% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Carefree sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 89%
- Carefree's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 76%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Carefree is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Carefree compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Carefree's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
90 Top 9% score exceeds 91% 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%). Below this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Below this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). This entry sits in this band.
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 | 65°F (18°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 1.7 | 0.0 |
| February | 68°F (20°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.6" | 0.0" | 1.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 74°F (23°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 1.6" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.8 |
| April | 82°F (28°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 67°F (20°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 5.3 |
| May | 91°F (33°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 18.8 |
| June | 101°F (38°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 85°F (30°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 28.4 |
| July | 103°F (40°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 90°F (32°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 30.7 |
| August | 102°F (39°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 89°F (32°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 30.6 |
| September | 97°F (36°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 84°F (29°C) | 1.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 27.4 |
| October | 86°F (30°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 1.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 10.9 |
| November | 74°F (23°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| December | 64°F (18°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 2.5 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Carefree runs from a mild 40°F around December 22 to 104°F at the peak near July 6, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from May 14 through October 4, covering 144 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 1 to November 23.
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 40°F around December 22.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 16, when 16% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 7 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 38 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 6 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 Carefree.
Where Carefree Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 144 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 13 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Carefree 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
4.5 days with precipitation
4.7 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
1.9 days with precipitation
1.5 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
4.9 days with precipitation
3.3 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
3.9 days with precipitation
Carefree's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 37% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 21%. 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 37.2°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 1.8"
- Driest month
- June, 0.1"
- Wettest three months
- January, March, February (40% 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 Carefree's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 38 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 12.6" between them, or roughly 0.33 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.
Carefree's record shows no measurable snowfall
This station measured snowfall across the 1991-2020 period and recorded none: the annual normal is 0.0 inches. That is a measured zero rather than missing data, which is a meaningful distinction here , most stations in the database simply do not report snow at all, and those pages say nothing about it.
A thirty-year normal of zero describes the typical year at this station. It is not a claim that snow has never fallen in the area.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 16
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
February 4
50% probability date
Growing Season
315 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
1,427
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
3,512
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside AZ closest to Carefree 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 (71°F here).
- Beeville, TX 71°F · 0.0°F off
- Carrizo Springs, TX 71°F · 0.0°F off
- Sugar Land, TX 71°F · 0.0°F off
- Houston, TX 71°F · 0.1°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (12.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Marathon, TX 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Ruth, NV 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Campo, CA 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Fence Lake, NM 12.6" · 0.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Carefree's limited precipitation lands
cooling led · dry · mid swing
Air-conditioning demand is the clearest thermal signal here. Carefree accumulates 3,512 cooling degree days, more than twice its 1,427 heating total; the monthly table shows when that imbalance builds rather than treating it as a year-round condition.
Heat demand sits beside limited local precipitation: Carefree receives 12.6 inches in a normal year, inside PlainClimate's dry range. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. Month-level precipitation is the useful check on when that small annual total arrives.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Carefree's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 37.2°F. The annual average is 71°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Carefree has a long frost-free window of roughly 315 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
Carefree wettest normal
January
January concentrates the scarce annual total (12.6 inches).
Carefree driest normal
June
June is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Carefree's climate
How dry is Carefree? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Carefree get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Carefree? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Carefree's primary station: CAREFREE (USC00021282). 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 0410180). Match rule for Carefree: 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 Carefree 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.