Carson, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Carson's center at January lows of 48°F and July highs of 80°F, a yearly mean of 64.6°F and 12.4 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Torrance (6 miles SW, 90 ft), has January lows of 47°F and July highs of 77°F.
91,358 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 68° 48°
- Feb 68° 49°
- Mar 69° 51°
- Apr 72° 53°
- May 73° 57°
- Jun 76° 60°
- Jul 80° 63°
- Aug 82° 64°
- Sep 82° 62°
- Oct 78° 58°
- Nov 73° 51°
- Dec 68° 47°
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 Carson's center.
What is each month like in Carson?
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. | Torrance high | Torrance low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68°F | 48°F | 57.9°F | 2.97 | 67°F | 47°F |
| February | 68°F | 49°F | 58.2°F | 3.26 | 66°F | 48°F |
| March | 69°F | 51°F | 60.0°F | 1.82 | 68°F | 50°F |
| April | 72°F | 53°F | 62.4°F | 0.64 | 70°F | 52°F |
| May | 73°F | 57°F | 64.8°F | 0.21 | 72°F | 55°F |
| June | 76°F | 60°F | 67.9°F | 0.05 | 74°F | 59°F |
| July | 80°F | 63°F | 71.5°F | 0.02 | 77°F | 62°F |
| August | 82°F | 64°F | 72.7°F | 0.01 | 78°F | 62°F |
| September | 82°F | 62°F | 71.9°F | 0.08 | 78°F | 61°F |
| October | 78°F | 58°F | 67.9°F | 0.45 | 76°F | 57°F |
| November | 73°F | 51°F | 62.3°F | 0.78 | 71°F | 51°F |
| December | 68°F | 47°F | 57.3°F | 2.10 | 66°F | 46°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 18.1°C, January lows of 9°C, July highs of 27°C and 314 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 Carson 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TorranceTorrance Airport | 6 mi SW | 90 ft | 63.0°F | 47°F | 77°F | 13.6 | 0 | January 9 |
| Long BeachLong Beach Daugherty Field | 6 mi E | 31 ft | 64.9°F | 47°F | 81°F | 12.0 | – | – |
| Redondo Beach | 7 mi W | 142 ft | 62.5°F | 47°F | 76°F | 13.8 | – | – |
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 Carson?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Torrance (6 miles SW, 90 ft). It gets 0 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after January 9 in half of years and the first autumn frost before January 5. Its record high is 108°F (1963) and its record low 24°F (1937) (kept since 1932).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Carson in zone 10b across its 4 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 82% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (5.0 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); November is the sunniest month (85%) and June the cloudiest (74%).
Torrance'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 Carson; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00003122; 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 Carson, ZIP code by ZIP code?
4 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Carson. On NOAA's grid 90248 is the warmest (65.0°F a year) and 90810 the coolest (63.8°F), a spread of 1.2°F. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 90248 | 10b | 65.0°F | 48°F | 82°F | 12.4 | Hawthorne (4 mi) | – | – |
| 90745 | 10b | 63.8°F | 48°F | 77°F | 12.2 | Torrance (5 mi) | January 9 | January 5 |
| 90746 | 10b | 64.5°F | 48°F | 80°F | 12.3 | Hawthorne (6 mi) | – | – |
| 90810 | 10b | 63.8°F | 48°F | 77°F | 12.2 | Long Beach (4 mi) | – | – |
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.