Elizabethton, Tennessee climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Elizabethton's normal year runs from 26°F January nights to 86°F July afternoons, with 48.0 inches of precipitation and 6 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 13.3°C, January lows of −4°C, July highs of 30°C, 1,220 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationElizabethton
- Station IDUSC00402806
- Location36.35°N 82.25°W
- Elevation1,487 ft (453 m)
- Population14,461
On October 23, the normal high in Elizabethton is 68°F and the normal low 41°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 31%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Elizabethton.
- Jan 46° 26°
- Feb 50° 28°
- Mar 59° 34°
- Apr 69° 42°
- May 77° 52°
- Jun 83° 60°
- Jul 86° 64°
- Aug 85° 62°
- Sep 80° 56°
- Oct 70° 44°
- Nov 59° 33°
- Dec 50° 29°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Elizabethton each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 86°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 26°F. The most precipitation falls in July (5.86 in), the least in October (2.80 in).
Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46°F | 26°F | 35.9°F | 3.78 | 1.9 | 13 | <1 | 22 | 10 h |
| February | 50°F | 28°F | 39.2°F | 3.76 | 2.1 | 12 | <1 | 18 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 59°F | 34°F | 46.6°F | 3.97 | 0.1 | 13 | <1 | 13 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 69°F | 42°F | 55.5°F | 3.81 | 0.0 | 12 | <1 | 4 | 13 h |
| May | 77°F | 52°F | 64.2°F | 4.43 | 0.0 | 13 | <1 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 83°F | 60°F | 71.2°F | 5.16 | 0.0 | 13 | 2 | <1 | 14 h 40 min |
| July | 86°F | 64°F | 74.5°F | 5.86 | 0.0 | 14 | 6 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| August | 85°F | 62°F | 73.7°F | 4.20 | 0.0 | 12 | 6 | <1 | 13 h 40 min |
| September | 80°F | 56°F | 67.9°F | 3.00 | 0.0 | 9 | 3 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 70°F | 44°F | 57.0°F | 2.80 | 0.0 | 9 | <1 | 3 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 59°F | 33°F | 45.9°F | 3.36 | 0.1 | 10 | <1 | 14 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 50°F | 29°F | 39.2°F | 3.90 | 1.8 | 13 | <1 | 20 | 9 h 40 min |
| Year (annual) | 68°F | 44°F | 55.9°F | 48.03 | 6.0 | 142 | 18 | 94 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8°C | −4°C | 2.2°C | 96 mm | 5 cm |
| February | 10°C | −2°C | 4.0°C | 96 mm | 5 cm |
| March | 15°C | 1°C | 8.1°C | 101 mm | 0 cm |
| April | 21°C | 5°C | 13.1°C | 97 mm | 0 cm |
| May | 25°C | 11°C | 17.9°C | 113 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 28°C | 15°C | 21.8°C | 131 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 30°C | 18°C | 23.6°C | 149 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 29°C | 17°C | 23.2°C | 107 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 27°C | 13°C | 19.9°C | 76 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 21°C | 7°C | 13.9°C | 71 mm | 0 cm |
| November | 15°C | 1°C | 7.7°C | 85 mm | 0 cm |
| December | 10°C | −2°C | 4.0°C | 99 mm | 5 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00402806; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
When is the best weather to visit Elizabethton?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, June, August, September and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (9).
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.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00402806.
When is the last frost in Elizabethton?
In Elizabethton, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 19 in half of years and after May 7 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 24 in half of years and before October 10 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- April 191 year in 10 after May 7; 9 in 10 after April 2
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 241 year in 10 before October 10; 9 in 10 before November 5
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 187 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 209 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 5 in half of springs and before November 1 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Elizabethton in zone 7b in ZIP code 37694, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Elizabethton's NOAA station is in zone 7a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 5°F (23 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Tennessee · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00402806; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get in Elizabethton?
In a normal year in Elizabethton, 18 days a year reach 90°F, 94 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 142 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 18a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 94a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 9high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 142a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 2a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1895) is 105°F, on July 2, 1898; the lowest is −21°F, on January 21, 1985.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2003, with 65.52 in; the snowiest season is 1986–87, with 35.0 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00402806; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00402806. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Elizabethton?
Over a year 73% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Elizabethton, 4.2 kWh per square metre a day. August is the sunniest month (78%) and February the cloudiest (62%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 65% | 2.2 |
| February | 62% | 2.8 |
| March | 68% | 4.0 |
| April | 73% | 5.2 |
| May | 73% | 5.8 |
| June | 76% | 6.2 |
| July | 75% | 5.9 |
| August | 78% | 5.5 |
| September | 77% | 4.7 |
| October | 75% | 3.6 |
| November | 74% | 2.7 |
| December | 65% | 2.0 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How much heating and cooling does Elizabethton need?
A normal year in Elizabethton brings 4,303 heating degree days, 20% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,008 cooling degree days, 11% more than 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 3,772 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 904 | 0 |
| February | 721 | 0 |
| March | 573 | 1 |
| April | 299 | 13 |
| May | 105 | 80 |
| June | 12 | 199 |
| July | 1 | 295 |
| August | 1 | 270 |
| September | 42 | 128 |
| October | 269 | 21 |
| November | 574 | 2 |
| December | 801 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 4,303 | 1,008 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00402806. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Has Elizabethton been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 56.9°F, 1.0°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 55.9°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 56.9°F | +1.0°F | 44.19 | 3.5 |
| 2022 | 56.7°F | +0.8°F | 43.90 | 7.3 |
| 2023 | 57.6°F | +1.7°F | 47.72 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 58.5°F | +2.6°F | 47.40 | 2.3 |
| 2025 | 56.9°F | +1.0°F | 41.89 | 7.4 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00402806. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Elizabethton's climate compare?
Elizabethton is warmer than 12 of the other 115 places with their own NOAA record in Tennessee, and wetter than 7. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 55.9°F is warmer than 63%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Elizabethton is Cfa: temperate, no dry season, hot summer. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Elizabethton share this climate record?
7 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.
- Johnson City, TNalso near: Bristol (9 mi, 56.6°F a year); Erwin (14 mi, 55.4°F a year)73,635 people · 7 mi W
- Pine Crest, TN2,173 people · 5 mi SW
- Biltmore, TN1,998 people · 2 mi NE
- Hunter, TN1,997 people · 6 mi NE
- Central, TN1,944 people · 3 mi SW
- Valley Forge, TN1,900 people · 5 mi SE
- Watauga, TN367 people · 3 mi W
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Elizabethton's climate
What is the coldest month in Elizabethton?
January, with a normal high of 46°F and a normal low of 26°F. The warmest is July (86°F by day, 64°F at night).
Does it snow in Elizabethton?
Yes: 6 inches in a normal year, falling on 4 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in February (2.1 inches).
What is the rainiest month in Elizabethton?
July, with 5.86 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is October with 2.80 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Elizabethton in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Elizabethton in zone 7b in ZIP code 37694, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Elizabethton's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 5°F (23 years, 1991-2020): zone 7a.
How late can frost come in Elizabethton?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 19; in one year in ten it comes after May 7. Waiting until May 7 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Elizabethton in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Tennessee climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Bristol, TN12 miles from this station, 56.6°F a year
- Roan Mountain, TN16 miles from this station, 51.8°F a year
- Erwin, TN17 miles from this station, 55.4°F a year
- Kingsport, TN19 miles from this station, 57.5°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made