Highlands Ranch, Colorado climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Highlands Ranch's center at January lows of 20°F and July highs of 87°F, a yearly mean of 50.8°F and 17.4 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Centennial (7 miles E, 5,883 ft), has January lows of 19°F and July highs of 87°F.
101,437 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 46° 20°
- Feb 48° 21°
- Mar 55° 28°
- Apr 61° 34°
- May 70° 43°
- Jun 82° 52°
- Jul 87° 58°
- Aug 85° 56°
- Sep 78° 48°
- Oct 65° 36°
- Nov 54° 27°
- Dec 46° 19°
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 Highlands Ranch's center.
What is each month like in Highlands Ranch?
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. | Centennial high | Centennial low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46°F | 20°F | 33.1°F | 0.60 | 45°F | 19°F |
| February | 48°F | 21°F | 34.3°F | 0.68 | 46°F | 20°F |
| March | 55°F | 28°F | 41.5°F | 1.54 | 54°F | 27°F |
| April | 61°F | 34°F | 47.2°F | 2.29 | 60°F | 34°F |
| May | 70°F | 43°F | 56.4°F | 2.36 | 69°F | 43°F |
| June | 82°F | 52°F | 66.9°F | 1.86 | 81°F | 52°F |
| July | 87°F | 58°F | 72.7°F | 2.05 | 87°F | 59°F |
| August | 85°F | 56°F | 70.6°F | 1.99 | 85°F | 57°F |
| September | 78°F | 48°F | 62.9°F | 1.47 | 77°F | 49°F |
| October | 65°F | 36°F | 50.7°F | 1.15 | 64°F | 36°F |
| November | 54°F | 27°F | 40.5°F | 0.81 | 52°F | 26°F |
| December | 46°F | 19°F | 32.5°F | 0.65 | 44°F | 19°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.4°C, January lows of −7°C, July highs of 31°C and 443 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 Highlands Ranch 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CentennialDenver Centennial Airport | 7 mi E | 5,883 ft | 50.2°F | 19°F | 87°F | 15.0 | – | May 5 |
| Marston Filter Plant | 7 mi NW | 5,610 ft | 50.8°F | 19°F | 86°F | 16.6 | 34 | May 2 |
| Kassler | 7 mi SW | 5,587 ft | 50.2°F | 17°F | 87°F | 18.2 | 62 | May 8 |
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 Highlands Ranch?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Centennial (7 miles E, 5,883 ft). NOAA publishes no snowfall normal for it; the nearest record that has one, Marston Filter Plant (7 miles NW), gets 34 inches a year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 5 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 8. Its record high is 101°F (2018) and its record low −17°F (2014) (kept since 1998).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Highlands Ranch in zone 6a across its 3 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 80% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.8 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); September is the sunniest month (85%) and May the cloudiest (76%).
Centennial'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 Highlands Ranch; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00093067; 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 Highlands Ranch, ZIP code by ZIP code?
3 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Highlands Ranch. On NOAA's grid 80129 is the warmest (51.4°F a year) and 80130 the coolest (50.5°F), a spread of 0.9°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 80126 | 6a | 50.8°F | 20°F | 87°F | 17.4 | Centennial (6 mi) | May 5 | October 8 |
| 80129 | 6a | 51.4°F | 19°F | 89°F | 16.7 | Marston Filter Plant (6 mi) | May 2 | October 11 |
| 80130 | 6a | 50.5°F | 20°F | 87°F | 17.0 | Centennial (5 mi) | May 5 | October 8 |
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.