Chattanooga, Tennessee climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records

What is the weather like in Chattanooga each month?

July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 91°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 32°F. The most precipitation falls in March (5.34 in), the least in October (3.59 in).

Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:

• Jan
• Feb
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Jul
• Aug
• Sep
• Oct
• Nov
• Dec

When is the best weather to visit Chattanooga?

Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, September and October. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (8).

That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.

When is the last frost in Chattanooga?

In Chattanooga, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 24 in half of years and after April 8 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 9 in half of years and before October 27 in one year in ten.

Last spring frost, half of years after

March 241 year in 10 after April 8; 9 in 10 after March 6

First autumn frost, half of years before

November 91 year in 10 before October 27; 9 in 10 before November 26

NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 230 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 257 days.

A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 11 in half of springs and before November 22 in half of autumns.

The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Chattanooga in zones 7b to 8a across its 16 ZIP code areas (8a in 37421, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Chattanooga's NOAA station is in zone 8a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 13°F (30 complete years).

Frost dates for every NOAA station in Tennessee · Frost dates by ZIP code

What hardiness zone is each Chattanooga ZIP code in?

The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Chattanooga's 16 ZIP code areas run from zone 7b to 8a: 2 in 7b and 14 in 8a. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.

How hot and how cold does it get in Chattanooga?

In a normal year in Chattanooga, 58 days a year reach 90°F (2 of them 100°F or more), 56 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 123 days bring measurable precipitation.

Days at 90°F or more

58a normal year

Days at 100°F or more

2a normal year

Nights at 32°F or colder

56a normal year

Days that stay below freezing

2high of 32°F or less

Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation

123a normal year

Days with 1 inch of snow or more

1a normal year

The highest temperature in Chattanooga's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1879) is 107°F, on June 30, 2012; the lowest is −10°F, on January 31, 1966.

The wettest calendar year on that record is 1994, with 73.70 in; the snowiest season is 1992–93, with 22.7 inches.

How humid and windy is Chattanooga, and how clear are its skies?

The summer (June-August) dew point averages 67°F. The muggiest month is July, with an average dew point of 69°F, above the 65°F at which most people call the air sticky; the driest air comes in January (30°F). February is the windiest month (6.4 mph on average), and September has the most clear or nearly clear hours (55%).

How sunny is Chattanooga?

Over a year 74% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Chattanooga, 4.3 kWh per square metre a day. August is the sunniest month (79%) and February the cloudiest (62%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 330th (with 21 others) in sunshine.

How much heating and cooling does Chattanooga need?

A normal year in Chattanooga brings 3,029 heating degree days, 44% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,921 cooling degree days, 2.1 times the median (908). Five months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 5,216 growing degree days a year above 50°F.

Has Chattanooga been warmer than normal lately?

2025 averaged 62.8°F, 0.9°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 61.9°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.

Over 138 complete years from 1879 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 0.7°F per century (+0.04°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.

Which places near Chattanooga share this climate record?

6 places have no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of their own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.

• Lakeview, GA4,760 people · 5 mi SW
• Ringgold, GA3,425 people · 9 mi SE
• Varnell, GA2,289 people · 16 mi SE
• Indian Springs, GA1,951 people · 5 mi SE
• Tunnel Hill, GA986 people · 15 mi SE
• Cohutta, GA848 people · 14 mi E

Nearby and next

• Chattanooga in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
• Tennessee climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
• Lookout Mountain, TN8 miles from this station, 57.4°F a year
• Fort Oglethorpe, GA9 miles from this station, 59.4°F a year
• Chickamauga, GA14 miles from this station, 61.2°F a year
• Soddy-Daisy, TN17 miles from this station, 58.0°F a year
• Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side

Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made