Cliff, NM Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Pulled from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →: climate measurements used in PlainClimate's documented score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Cliff's primary NOAA station, CLIFF 11 SE.
The climate verdict for Cliff
Dryness leads the climate profile for Cliff, New Mexico, with 14.5 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 56°F. Its climate comfort score of 69/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 65% of station-mapped location scores.
- 56°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 69/100
- comfort score, above 65% of station-mapped location scores
- 14.5"
- yearly precipitation total
- 159 days
- frost-free growing season
Cliff: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00291910 · Cliff, NM 56°F mean · 14.5" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 56°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,254
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Old Fort Ag
- PRCP-DRY 14.5"
- SWING-MID 37°F
- COMF-MID 69/100
- LOAD-HEAT 4,278 HDD
- STN-1 USC00291910
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Old Fort Ag, NC (+ 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 NM station list.
- Cliff (this station) 56°F
- Hot Old Fort Ag, NC 56°F
- Near Allardt, TN 56°F
- Cold Gatlinburg, TN 55°F
- Near Seligman, AZ 55°F
Climate Living Index · Cliff
Cliff: 39/100 · grade F
Cliff publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Cliff, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 69/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 55.6°F · 11.9° from 67.5°F | 61/100 · C |
| Frost-free season | 159 days/year | 33/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 14.5 in · 20.5 from 35 in | 26/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 215 calendar days | 7/100 · F |
Cliff · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Cliff'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
- 74.8°F
- Coldest month
- 37.8°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 Cliff sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Cliff's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 62nd percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 84%
- Cliff's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 77%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Cliff is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Cliff compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Cliff's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
69 Top 35% score exceeds 65% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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
Cliff's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 59 complete annual observations from 1951 to 2025, CLIFF 11 SE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.29°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Cliff primary station fitted change +0.29 °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 | 55°F (13°C) | 20°F (-6°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 1.2" | 0.0" | 28.2 | 0.0 |
| February | 60°F (15°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 1.1" | 0.0" | 23.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 67°F (19°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 23.9 | 0.0 |
| April | 74°F (23°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 15.4 | 0.1 |
| May | 82°F (28°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 3.1 | 3.2 |
| June | 91°F (33°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 71°F (21°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 18.8 |
| July | 91°F (33°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 2.7" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 19.8 |
| August | 89°F (32°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 2.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 15.3 |
| September | 85°F (29°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 67°F (20°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 6.7 |
| October | 76°F (24°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 8.7 | 0.5 |
| November | 64°F (18°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 24.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 55°F (13°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 28.2 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Cliff works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 92°F by June 25 and hold at or above 90°F on 47 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 168 dates, bottoming at 20°F around January 8.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 10 through July 26, covering 47 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 29 to November 1.
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.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 14, then returns to freezing around October 30, covering 168 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 July 30, when 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is April 24 at 7%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 64 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 4 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 43°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Cliff.
Where Cliff Stands Nationally
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 43°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 15 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Cliff 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
6.1 days with precipitation
5.5 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
2.2 days with precipitation
2.8 days with precipitation
3.5 days with precipitation
10.5 days with precipitation
10.2 days with precipitation
5.8 days with precipitation
4.1 days with precipitation
3.5 days with precipitation
5.5 days with precipitation
Cliff runs a summer-peaked wet season
40% of Cliff'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 2.7", on a 37°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, September, taking 49% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: April at 0.3".
- Winter share: 25% 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.
How Cliff's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 63 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 14.5" between them, or roughly 0.23 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.
Cliff'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
October 15
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 9
50% probability date
Growing Season
159 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
4,278
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
875
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside NM closest to Cliff 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 (56°F here).
- Bradfordsville, KY 56°F · 0.0°F off
- Butler, MO 56°F · 0.0°F off
- Chatham, VA 56°F · 0.0°F off
- Grants Pass, OR 56°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (14.5" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Douglas, WY 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Northglenn, CO 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Culbertson, MT 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Escondido, CA 14.5" · 0.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Cliff's limited precipitation lands
heating led · dry · mid swing
Cliff's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 4,278 annual heating degree days against 875 for cooling. Its 37.0°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Cliff's frost-free season lasts about 159 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Cliff's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 37.0°F. The annual average is 56°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Cliff's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 14.5 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
Cliff wettest normal
July
July concentrates the scarce annual total (14.5 inches).
Cliff driest normal
April
April is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Cliff's climate
How dry is Cliff? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Cliff get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Cliff? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Cliff's primary station: CLIFF 11 SE (USC00291910). 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 a census-designated place (GEOID 3515860), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Cliff: 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 Cliff 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.