Gary, Indiana climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Gary's center at January lows of 19°F and July highs of 83°F, a yearly mean of 50.8°F and 38.2 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Park Forest (18 miles W, 710 ft), has January lows of 15°F and July highs of 84°F.
67,555 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 33° 19°
- Feb 36° 22°
- Mar 47° 30°
- Apr 58° 39°
- May 70° 50°
- Jun 79° 60°
- Jul 83° 65°
- Aug 81° 64°
- Sep 75° 56°
- Oct 63° 45°
- Nov 49° 34°
- Dec 38° 25°
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 Gary's center.
What is each month like in Gary?
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. | Park Forest high | Park Forest low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33°F | 19°F | 25.8°F | 2.22 | 31°F | 15°F |
| February | 36°F | 22°F | 29.2°F | 1.91 | 35°F | 18°F |
| March | 47°F | 30°F | 38.6°F | 2.30 | 46°F | 28°F |
| April | 58°F | 39°F | 48.8°F | 3.54 | 59°F | 38°F |
| May | 70°F | 50°F | 59.5°F | 4.25 | 71°F | 49°F |
| June | 79°F | 60°F | 69.3°F | 4.23 | 80°F | 59°F |
| July | 83°F | 65°F | 73.8°F | 3.98 | 84°F | 64°F |
| August | 81°F | 64°F | 72.5°F | 3.85 | 82°F | 62°F |
| September | 75°F | 56°F | 65.9°F | 3.47 | 76°F | 55°F |
| October | 63°F | 45°F | 54.0°F | 3.51 | 63°F | 42°F |
| November | 49°F | 34°F | 41.5°F | 2.74 | 48°F | 31°F |
| December | 38°F | 25°F | 31.1°F | 2.15 | 36°F | 22°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.4°C, January lows of −7°C, July highs of 28°C and 969 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 Gary 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park Forest | 18 mi W | 710 ft | 49.8°F | 15°F | 84°F | 42.1 | 28 | April 23 |
| Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | 14 mi E | 680 ft | 50.2°F | 18°F | 82°F | 39.2 | 40 | April 22 |
| Valparaiso Water Works | 17 mi E | 800 ft | 50.5°F | 18°F | 83°F | 40.3 | 40 | April 22 |
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 Gary?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Park Forest (18 miles W, 710 ft). It gets 28 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 23 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 20. Its record high is 103°F (1988) and its record low −27°F (1985) (kept since 1952).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Gary in zone 6a across its 8 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 72% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (3.8 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); July is the sunniest month (80%) and January the cloudiest (59%).
Park Forest'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 Gary; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00116616; 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 Gary, ZIP code by ZIP code?
8 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Gary. On NOAA's grid 46402 is the warmest (50.8°F a year) and 46405 the coolest (50.2°F), a spread of 0.6°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 46402 | 6a | 50.8°F | 19°F | 83°F | 38.2 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (13 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46403 | 6a | 50.7°F | 19°F | 83°F | 38.2 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (9 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46404 | 6a | 50.8°F | 19°F | 83°F | 38.2 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (15 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46405 | 6a | 50.2°F | 18°F | 83°F | 38.4 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (10 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46406 | 6a | 50.6°F | 18°F | 83°F | 38.4 | Park Forest (16 mi) | April 23 | October 20 |
| 46407 | 6a | 50.3°F | 18°F | 83°F | 38.5 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (13 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46408 | 6a | 50.4°F | 18°F | 83°F | 38.4 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (16 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
| 46409 | 6a | 50.3°F | 18°F | 83°F | 38.5 | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore (13 mi) | April 22 | October 27 |
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.