El Cajon, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Annual temperature and rainfall from NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 normals →; comfort score computed by PlainClimate
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from El Cajon's primary NOAA station, EL CAJON.
The climate verdict for El Cajon
Dryness leads the climate profile for El Cajon, California, with 11.6 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 65°F. It scores 90/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 91% of them.
- 65°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 90/100
- comfort score, above 91% of station-mapped location scores
- 11.6"
- yearly precipitation total
- 349 days
- frost-free growing season
El Cajon: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00042706 · El Cajon, CA 65°F mean · 11.6" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-NARROW · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 65°F
- RANK-UPPER #6,038
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Bienville
- PRCP-ARID 11.6"
- SWING-NARROW 22°F
- COMF-TOP 90/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USC00042706
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Bienville, LA (+ 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 CA station list.
- El Cajon (this station) 65°F
- Hot Evergreen, AL 65°F
- Near Bienville, LA 65°F
- Near Burbank Glendal…, CA 65°F
- Near Diana, TX 65°F
Climate Living Index · El Cajon
El Cajon: 82/100 · grade B
El Cajon publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for El Cajon, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 90/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 349 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 65.2°F · 2.3° from 67.5°F | 92/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Precipitation balance | 11.6 in · 23.4 from 35 in | 17/100 · F |
El Cajon · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
El Cajon's normals sit in a dry climate class: BSh
Precipitation is low relative to temperature but above true desert thresholds: hot semi-arid steppe (BSh). Class BSh is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically hot semi-arid steppe.
- Köppen code
- BSh
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 76.6°F
- Coldest month
- 55.1°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 · balanced station
Where El Cajon sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for El Cajon's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 12% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, El Cajon sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 91%
- El Cajon's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 96%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for El Cajon is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How El Cajon compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
El Cajon's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
90 Top 9% score exceeds 91% 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%). Below this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Below this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). This entry sits in this band.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69°F (21°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.3" | 0.0" | 0.8 | 0.1 |
| February | 69°F (21°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 2.6" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 0.3 |
| March | 71°F (22°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 1.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| April | 75°F (24°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| May | 76°F (25°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.5 |
| June | 81°F (27°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.6 |
| July | 86°F (30°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 9.9 |
| August | 89°F (31°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 15.1 |
| September | 87°F (31°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 13.5 |
| October | 81°F (27°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 6.9 |
| November | 75°F (24°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 1.0" | 0.0" | 0.2 | 2.2 |
| December | 69°F (20°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 1.2 | 0.1 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in El Cajon: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 41°F near December 16 and 90°F near August 29.
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 41°F around December 16.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 18, when 24% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 2 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 36 wet dates a year.
The widest day
November 18 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 28°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for El Cajon.
Where El Cajon Stands Nationally
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 12 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
El Cajon earns one nationally notable standing (outer quintile) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations, middle-of-the-pack metrics stay silent here.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
5.6 days with precipitation
7.0 days with precipitation
5.1 days with precipitation
3.5 days with precipitation
2.2 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
0.4 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
1.7 days with precipitation
3.4 days with precipitation
5.5 days with precipitation
El Cajon's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 58% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 2%. 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 an unusually narrow 21.5°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 2.6"
- Driest month
- August, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, March (59% 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.
How El Cajon's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 36 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 11.6" between them, or roughly 0.32 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.
El Cajon'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 21
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 6
50% probability date
Growing Season
349 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
1,309
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,377
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
August
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to El Cajon 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 (65°F here).
- Bienville, LA 65°F · 0.0°F off
- Evergreen, AL 65°F · 0.0°F off
- Jackson, AL 65°F · 0.0°F off
- Jesup, GA 65°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (11.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- La Verkin, UT 11.6" · 0.0" off
- Omak, WA 11.6" · 0.0" off
- Fairbanks, AK 11.7" · 0.0" off
- Ephraim, UT 11.7" · 0.1" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where El Cajon's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · low swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 11.6 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
The calendar stays thermally compact and dry. August and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar, only 21.5°F apart, while the annual precipitation total remains below PlainClimate's dry threshold. The annual average is 65°F. The monthly rows show whether that limited precipitation is spread through the year or concentrated in a shorter interval.
El Cajon combines a compact 21.5°F annual temperature range with meaningful demand on both sides of the thermostat: 1,309 heating and 1,377 cooling degree days. The balance matters more here than either annual total in isolation.
El Cajon has a long frost-free window of roughly 349 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
El Cajon wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (11.6 inches).
El Cajon driest normal
August
August is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about El Cajon's climate
How dry is El Cajon? ▼
How many days above 90°F does El Cajon get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in El Cajon? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from El Cajon's primary station: EL CAJON (USC00042706). 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 an incorporated place (GEOID 0621712). Match rule for El Cajon: 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 El Cajon 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.