Death Valley National Park, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Annual temperature and rainfall from NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 normals →; comfort score computed by PlainClimate
- Warmer national band · Avg annual temp
- 79°F
- Above score median · Comfort score
- 70/100
- Drier national band · Annual precip
- 2.2"
- Long-season national band · Growing season
- 352d
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Death Valley National Park's primary NOAA station, DEATH VALLEY NP.
The climate verdict for Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park, California is cooling-led and dry. Its 2.2 inches of annual precipitation pairs with an annual average of 79°F. Its climate comfort score of 70/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 66% of station-mapped location scores.
- 79°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 70/100
- comfort score, above 66% of station-mapped location scores
- 2.2"
- yearly precipitation total
- 352 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Death Valley National Park: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Avg Temperature
79°F (26°C)
Warmer national band
Avg High
92°F
Warmer national band
Avg Low
66°F
Warmer national band
Annual Precip
2.2"
Drier national band
Annual Snow
0.0"
Low-snow national band
Comfort Score
70/100
Above score median · Good
Climate Living Index · Death Valley National Park
Death Valley National Park: 46/100 · grade D
Death Valley National Park publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Death Valley National Park, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 70/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 352 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 78.8°F · 11.3° from 67.5°F | 64/100 · C |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 194 calendar days | 17/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 2.2 in · 32.8 from 35 in | 0/100 · F |
Death Valley National Park · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
How Death Valley National Park compares with its closest stations
Against the 6 closest stations in the record, Death Valley National Park averages 79°F a year, warmer than Stovepipe Wells, CA (77°F) and Amargosa Farms-garey, NV (65°F). On comfort score it places 4 of 7 in that local group.
National standing · cooling-led station
Where Death Valley National Park sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Death Valley National Park's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 1% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Death Valley National Park sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 100%
- Death Valley National Park's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 83%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Death Valley National Park is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Death Valley National Park compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Death Valley National Park's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
70 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
Death Valley National Park's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 87 complete annual observations from 1912 to 2025, DEATH VALLEY NP warmed at a fitted rate of 0.19°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Death Valley National Park primary station fitted change +0.19 °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 | 67°F (20°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 2.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 74°F (23°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| March | 83°F (28°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 7.2 |
| April | 91°F (33°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 78°F (26°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 17.7 |
| May | 101°F (38°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 88°F (31°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 27.4 |
| June | 111°F (44°C) | 84°F (29°C) | 98°F (36°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 29.6 |
| July | 117°F (47°C) | 91°F (33°C) | 104°F (40°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 31.0 |
| August | 116°F (47°C) | 89°F (32°C) | 102°F (39°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 31.0 |
| September | 108°F (42°C) | 79°F (26°C) | 93°F (34°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 29.4 |
| October | 93°F (34°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 79°F (26°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 21.9 |
| November | 77°F (25°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 1.9 |
| December | 66°F (19°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 4.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Death Valley National Park runs from a mild 40°F around December 22 to 118°F at the peak near July 23, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from April 12 through October 22, covering 194 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs January 31 to November 29.
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.
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 40°F around December 22.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 18, when 10% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 8 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 16 wet dates a year.
The widest day
October 5 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 29°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Death Valley National Park.
Where Death Valley National Park Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 194 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 2 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Death Valley National Park 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
2.4 days with precipitation
2.9 days with precipitation
2.0 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
0.3 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
1.6 days with precipitation
Death Valley National Park's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 52% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 11%. 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 a wide 50.8°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
- Wettest month
- February, 0.5"
- Driest month
- May, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, December (52% 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.
Death Valley National Park is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 16 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 4% of the calendar, and they carry 2.2" between them. At roughly 0.14 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is February at about 3 wet days; the driest is June at about 0.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Death Valley National Park'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
December 19
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 1
50% probability date
Growing Season
352 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
954
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
6,020
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Places with a similar climate profile
For Death Valley National Park, cooling load dominates, so energy peers (matched on heating and cooling degree days) usually describe day-to-day demand better than annual-temperature peers alone.
Closest annual-temperature peers
What Death Valley National Park's climate means for you
Death Valley National Park runs 79°F a year - peaking in July, coldest in December.
- Frost is effectively off the calendar here: roughly 352 frost-free days a year, so planting is limited by summer heat rather than by cold.
- Air conditioning drives the bills rather than the furnace: 6,020 cooling degree days against 954 for heating.
- Compare Death Valley National Park's warm-season normals with state and national rankings. See rankings
Climate Guides
Data-derived climate profile
How Death Valley National Park's climate pattern fits together
cooling led · dry · mid swing
Air-conditioning demand is the clearest thermal signal here. Death Valley National Park accumulates 6,020 cooling degree days, more than twice its 954 heating total; the monthly table shows when that imbalance builds rather than treating it as a year-round condition.
Heat demand sits beside limited local precipitation: Death Valley National Park receives 2.2 inches in a normal year, inside PlainClimate's dry range. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. Month-level precipitation is the useful check on when that small annual total arrives.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Death Valley National Park's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 50.8°F. The annual average is 79°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
With about 352 frost-free days, the calendar is constrained more by sustained heat than by freeze timing. This does not measure crop suitability or soil moisture; it only reports the NOAA-derived frost-free window for Death Valley National Park.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Death Valley National Park's primary station, so the summer figures are a thirty-year average rather than a ceiling: individual years have run hotter and will again. For Death Valley National Park that means a descriptive range only — not an official NOAA classification and not a prediction for next summer.
The year in four calendar signals
- Warmest normal
- July
- At 104°F (40°C) this is a genuinely hot month, in the top third of US stations, and the daily average understates afternoon highs.
- Coldest normal
- December
- The coldest month still averages 53°F (12°C), above freezing, so this calendar has no hard winter.
- Rainfall rhythm
- February to May
- February is typically wettest; May is driest.
- Mild-temperature window
- February through November
- Monthly means sit between 55°F and 75°F in this window. Freezing days are still reported from January through December.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the average temperature in Death Valley National Park, CA? ▼
How dry is Death Valley National Park? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Death Valley National Park get? ▼
What is the comfort score for Death Valley National Park? ▼
When is the growing season in Death Valley National Park? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Death Valley National Park? ▼
Where does this Death Valley National Park climate data come from? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Death Valley National Park's primary station: DEATH VALLEY NP (USC00042319). 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 Death Valley National Park; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
Related
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Death Valley National Park 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.