Escondido, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Escondido's primary NOAA station, ESCONDIDO #2.
The climate verdict for Escondido
Dryness leads the climate profile for Escondido, California, with 14.5 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 66°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.
- 66°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 90/100
- comfort score, above 91% of station-mapped location scores
- 14.5"
- precipitation, annual total
- 362 days
- frost-free growing season
Escondido: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00042863 · Escondido, CA 66°F mean · 14.5" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-WARM · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-NARROW · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 66°F
- RANK-WARM #6,175
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Bardwell Dam
- PRCP-DRY 14.5"
- SWING-NARROW 21°F
- COMF-TOP 90/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USC00042863
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Bardwell Dam, TX (+ 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.
- Escondido (this station) 66°F
- Hot Cordele, GA 66°F
- Near Bardwell Dam, TX 66°F
- Near Big Lake, TX 66°F
- Near Concho Park/ivi…, TX 66°F
Climate Living Index · Escondido
Escondido: 84/100 · grade B
Escondido publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Escondido, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 90/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 362 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 65.8°F · 1.7° from 67.5°F | 94/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Precipitation balance | 14.5 in · 20.5 from 35 in | 26/100 · F |
Escondido · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Escondido'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
- 77.2°F
- Coldest month
- 55.9°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 Escondido sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Escondido's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 10% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Escondido sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 84%
- Escondido'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 Escondido is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Escondido compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Escondido'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 (20°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 3.2" | 0.0" | 0.8 | 0.0 |
| February | 69°F (20°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 3.6" | 0.0" | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| March | 71°F (22°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 2.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| April | 74°F (23°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 1.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.7 |
| May | 77°F (25°C) | 56°F (14°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.7 |
| June | 82°F (28°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 71°F (22°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 4.0 |
| July | 87°F (31°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 10.9 |
| August | 89°F (32°C) | 65°F (19°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 15.2 |
| September | 87°F (31°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.7 |
| October | 81°F (27°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 69°F (21°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 5.3 |
| November | 75°F (24°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 1.1" | 0.0" | 0.2 | 1.6 |
| December | 68°F (20°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.1" | 0.0" | 0.7 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Escondido: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 43°F near December 15 and 89°F near August 22.
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 43°F around December 15.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 21, when 25% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 14 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 42 wet dates a year.
The widest day
November 11 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 26°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Escondido.
Where Escondido Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 15 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Escondido 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
6.4 days with precipitation
6.9 days with precipitation
5.8 days with precipitation
4.0 days with precipitation
2.6 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
0.7 days with precipitation
0.4 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
2.3 days with precipitation
3.7 days with precipitation
6.3 days with precipitation
Escondido's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 61% 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 21.3°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 3.6"
- Driest month
- August, 0.1"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, March (62% 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.
When it rains in Escondido, it arrives in quantity
14.5" of precipitation falls across only about 41 wet days here, averaging 0.35 inches each. Fewer days carry more water: the year's total is delivered in comparatively heavy events rather than persistent damp.
- Days with measurable precipitation
- about 41 a year, 11% of all days
- Average depth per wet day
- 0.35 inches
- Most wet days
- February, about 7
- Fewest wet days
- August, about 0
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, and a per-day average is not a forecast of any individual storm.
Escondido'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 30
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 2
50% probability date
Growing Season
362 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
1,214
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,517
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
August
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Escondido 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 (66°F here).
- Big Lake, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Cordele, GA 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Fairfield, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Leesburg, GA 66°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (14.5" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Culbertson, MT 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Pompeys Pillar, MT 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Cliff, NM 14.5" · 0.0" off
- Douglas, WY 14.5" · 0.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Escondido's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · low swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 14.5 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 21.3°F apart, while the annual precipitation total remains below PlainClimate's dry threshold. The annual average is 66°F. The monthly rows show whether that limited precipitation is spread through the year or concentrated in a shorter interval.
Escondido combines a compact 21.3°F annual temperature range with meaningful demand on both sides of the thermostat: 1,214 heating and 1,517 cooling degree days. The balance matters more here than either annual total in isolation.
Escondido has a long frost-free window of roughly 362 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
Escondido wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (14.5 inches).
Escondido driest normal
August
August is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Escondido's climate
How dry is Escondido? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Escondido get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Escondido? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Escondido's primary station: ESCONDIDO #2 (USC00042863). 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 0622804). Match rule for Escondido: 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 Escondido 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.