Costa Mesa, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Costa Mesa's center at January lows of 48°F and July highs of 78°F, a yearly mean of 64.1°F and 11.2 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Santa Ana (3 miles E, 54 ft), has January lows of 49°F and July highs of 79°F.
109,131 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 68° 48°
- Feb 67° 49°
- Mar 68° 51°
- Apr 70° 53°
- May 71° 57°
- Jun 74° 60°
- Jul 78° 64°
- Aug 80° 64°
- Sep 80° 63°
- Oct 77° 58°
- Nov 73° 52°
- 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 Costa Mesa's center.
What is each month like in Costa Mesa?
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. | Santa Ana high | Santa Ana low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 68°F | 48°F | 58.0°F | 2.52 | 67°F | 49°F |
| February | 67°F | 49°F | 58.1°F | 2.85 | 67°F | 50°F |
| March | 68°F | 51°F | 59.7°F | 1.59 | 68°F | 52°F |
| April | 70°F | 53°F | 61.7°F | 0.68 | 70°F | 55°F |
| May | 71°F | 57°F | 64.3°F | 0.23 | 71°F | 59°F |
| June | 74°F | 60°F | 67.0°F | 0.05 | 74°F | 63°F |
| July | 78°F | 64°F | 70.5°F | 0.03 | 79°F | 66°F |
| August | 80°F | 64°F | 71.8°F | 0.01 | 80°F | 67°F |
| September | 80°F | 63°F | 71.1°F | 0.09 | 80°F | 65°F |
| October | 77°F | 58°F | 67.5°F | 0.42 | 77°F | 59°F |
| November | 73°F | 52°F | 62.2°F | 0.74 | 72°F | 53°F |
| December | 68°F | 47°F | 57.5°F | 1.97 | 67°F | 48°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.8°C, January lows of 9°C, July highs of 25°C and 283 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 Costa Mesa 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa AnaSanta Ana John Wayne Airport | 3 mi E | 54 ft | 64.9°F | 49°F | 79°F | 11.2 | – | – |
| Newport BeachNewport Beach Harbor | 5 mi S | 10 ft | 62.8°F | 50°F | 72°F | 9.4 | 0 | – |
| Santa Ana Fire Station | 6 mi NE | 135 ft | 66.1°F | 49°F | 83°F | 12.5 | 0 | – |
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 Costa Mesa?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Santa Ana (3 miles E, 54 ft). NOAA publishes no snowfall normal for it; the nearest record that has one, Newport Beach (5 miles S), gets 0 inches a year. Frost is rare there: NOAA gives no median frost date. Its record high is 110°F (2010) and its record low 33°F (2007) (kept since 1999).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Costa Mesa in zone 10b across its 2 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 87% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (5.4 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); August is the sunniest month (92%) and February the cloudiest (83%).
Santa Ana'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 Costa Mesa; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00093184; 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 Costa Mesa, ZIP code by ZIP code?
2 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Costa Mesa. On NOAA's grid 92626 is the warmest (65.0°F a year) and 92627 the coolest (63.6°F), a spread of 1.4°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92626 | 10b | 65.0°F | 47°F | 80°F | 11.9 | Santa Ana (2 mi) | – | – |
| 92627 | 10b | 63.6°F | 49°F | 75°F | 11.5 | Newport 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.