Carmel Valley, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Annual temperature and rainfall from NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 normals →; comfort score computed by PlainClimate
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Carmel Valley's primary NOAA station, CARMEL VALLEY.
The climate verdict for Carmel Valley
Dryness leads the climate profile for Carmel Valley, California, with 17.9 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 58°F. Its climate comfort score of 73/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 66% of station-mapped location scores.
- 58°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 73/100
- comfort score, above 66% of station-mapped location scores
- 17.9"
- annual precipitation
- 291 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Carmel Valley: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00041534 · Carmel Valley, CA 58°F mean · 17.9" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-NARROW · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 58°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,803
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Twitchell Dam
- PRCP-DRY 17.9"
- SWING-NARROW 15°F
- COMF-MID 73/100
- LOAD-HEAT 2,730 HDD
- STN-1 USC00041534
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Twitchell Dam, CA (+ 0.1 °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.
- Hot Hollister, CA 59°F
- Near Palo Alto, CA 59°F
- Carmel Valley (this station) 58°F
- Cold Petaluma, CA 58°F
- Near Twitchell Dam, CA 58°F
Climate Living Index · Carmel Valley
Carmel Valley: 78/100 · grade B
Carmel Valley publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Carmel Valley, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 73/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 291 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 58.3°F · 9.2° from 67.5°F | 71/100 · B |
| Precipitation balance | 17.9 in · 17.1 from 35 in | 39/100 · F |
Carmel Valley · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Carmel Valley is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 51.0°F and warmest-month mean 65.7°F place this station in temperate, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Csb). Class Csb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: temperate, specifically temperate, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Csb
- Group
- Temperate
- Warmest month
- 65.7°F
- Coldest month
- 51.0°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 Carmel Valley sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Carmel Valley's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 30% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Carmel Valley sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 76%
- Carmel Valley's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 98%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Carmel Valley is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Carmel Valley compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Carmel Valley's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
73 Top 34% score exceeds 66% 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 | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63°F (17°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 3.9" | 2.6 | 0.0 |
| February | 64°F (18°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 3.5" | 2.6 | 0.0 |
| March | 67°F (19°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 2.8" | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| April | 69°F (20°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.4" | 0.1 | 0.5 |
| May | 71°F (22°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.5" | 0.0 | 1.2 |
| June | 76°F (24°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| July | 79°F (26°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| August | 80°F (26°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 3.1 |
| September | 81°F (27°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 6.5 |
| October | 78°F (26°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.8" | 0.0 | 4.2 |
| November | 69°F (20°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.7" | 1.3 | 0.4 |
| December | 63°F (17°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 3.0" | 4.6 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Carmel Valley: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 39°F near December 15 and 81°F near September 5.
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 39°F around December 15.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is December 22, when 38% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 13 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 66 wet dates a year.
The widest day
October 18 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 Carmel Valley.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
10.5 days with precipitation
10.3 days with precipitation
9.9 days with precipitation
7.6 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
2.9 days with precipitation
6.7 days with precipitation
12.2 days with precipitation
Carmel Valley's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 58% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 1%. 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 an unusually narrow 14.7°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 3.9"
- Driest month
- July, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- January, February, December (58% 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 Carmel Valley's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 66 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 17.9" between them, or roughly 0.27 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.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 8
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
February 20
50% probability date
Growing Season
291 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,730
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
292
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
September
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Carmel Valley 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 (58°F here).
- Blackwell, OK 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Canyon, TX 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Carthage, MO 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Hopkinsville, KY 58°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (17.9" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Muleshoe, TX 17.9" · 0.0" off
- Holyoke, CO 17.9" · 0.0" off
- Yuma, CO 18.0" · 0.0" off
- Clayton, NM 17.9" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Carmel Valley's climate pattern fits together
heating led · dry · low swing
Heating is the larger measured load in Carmel Valley, at 2,730 degree days versus 292 for cooling. Unlike a strongly continental record, however, its 14.7°F month-to-month range is compact; persistent cool-season demand matters more than a dramatic summer-to-winter reversal.
Carmel Valley has a long frost-free window of roughly 291 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
The calendar stays thermally compact and dry. September and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar, only 14.7°F apart, while the annual precipitation total remains below PlainClimate's dry threshold. The annual average is 58°F. The monthly rows show whether that limited precipitation is spread through the year or concentrated in a shorter interval.
Carmel Valley's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 17.9 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Carmel Valley's primary station, so the winter figures are a thirty-year average and not a floor: a single hard season can run well below them. Treat each band as a descriptive range for Carmel Valley, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Carmel Valley's climate
How much rain does Carmel Valley get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Carmel Valley? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Carmel Valley's primary station: CARMEL VALLEY (USC00041534). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The conservative exact name-and-state crosswalk finds no Census place match, so PlainClimate treats this as a station-mapped location and does not claim it is a municipality. No exact Gazetteer row for Carmel Valley; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Carmel Valley 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.