Hollister, California climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Hollister's normal year runs from 38°F December nights to 81°F August afternoons, with 13.7 inches of precipitation and less than an inch of snow (0.1 in) a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 14.8°C, December lows of 3°C, August highs of 27°C, 348 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationHollister 2
- Station IDUSC00044025
- Location36.85°N 121.42°W
- Elevation275 ft (84 m)
- Population45,033
On October 22, the normal high in Hollister is 76°F and the normal low 47°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 10%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Hollister.
- Jan 60° 39°
- Feb 62° 41°
- Mar 66° 43°
- Apr 69° 45°
- May 73° 48°
- Jun 78° 51°
- Jul 80° 54°
- Aug 81° 54°
- Sep 81° 53°
- Oct 77° 48°
- Nov 67° 42°
- Dec 59° 38°
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 Hollister each month?
August is the warmest month, with normal highs of 81°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 38°F. The most precipitation falls in January (3.10 in), the least in July (0.00 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. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60°F | 39°F | 49.1°F | 3.10 | 8 | <1 | 5 | 9 h 50 min |
| February | 62°F | 41°F | 51.3°F | 2.65 | 10 | <1 | 3 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 66°F | 43°F | 54.1°F | 2.23 | 7 | <1 | 1 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 69°F | 45°F | 56.8°F | 0.99 | 5 | 1 | <1 | 13 h 10 min |
| May | 73°F | 48°F | 60.8°F | 0.44 | 2 | 2 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| June | 78°F | 51°F | 64.6°F | 0.09 | 1 | 3 | <1 | 14 h 40 min |
| July | 80°F | 54°F | 66.7°F | 0.00 | <1 | 4 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| August | 81°F | 54°F | 67.9°F | 0.01 | <1 | 5 | <1 | 13 h 40 min |
| September | 81°F | 53°F | 66.8°F | 0.05 | <1 | 6 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 77°F | 48°F | 62.3°F | 0.62 | 3 | 3 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 67°F | 42°F | 54.2°F | 1.25 | 5 | <1 | 2 | 10 h 10 min |
| December | 59°F | 38°F | 48.3°F | 2.27 | 7 | <1 | 7 | 9 h 40 min |
| Year (annual) | 71°F | 46°F | 58.6°F | 13.70 | 48 | 25 | 18 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15°C | 4°C | 9.5°C | 79 mm |
| February | 17°C | 5°C | 10.7°C | 67 mm |
| March | 19°C | 6°C | 12.3°C | 57 mm |
| April | 21°C | 7°C | 13.8°C | 25 mm |
| May | 23°C | 9°C | 16.0°C | 11 mm |
| June | 26°C | 11°C | 18.1°C | 2 mm |
| July | 26°C | 12°C | 19.3°C | 0 mm |
| August | 27°C | 12°C | 19.9°C | 0 mm |
| September | 27°C | 11°C | 19.3°C | 1 mm |
| October | 25°C | 9°C | 16.8°C | 16 mm |
| November | 19°C | 5°C | 12.3°C | 32 mm |
| December | 15°C | 3°C | 9.1°C | 58 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00044025; 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 Hollister?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October and November. Of those, July has the fewest days with rain (0).
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 USC00044025.
When is the last frost in Hollister?
In Hollister, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after February 19 in half of years and after March 28 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before December 1 in half of years and before November 12 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
- February 191 year in 10 after March 28; 9 in 10 after January 10
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- December 11 year in 10 before November 12; 9 in 10 before December 25
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 287 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 337 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after January 16 in half of springs and before December 14 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hollister in zone 9b in ZIP code 95023, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Hollister's NOAA station is in zone 9b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 27°F (20 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in California · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00044025; 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 Hollister?
In a normal year in Hollister, 25 days a year reach 90°F (4 of them 100°F or more), 18 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 48 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 25a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 4a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 18a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 48a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1975) is 112°F, on July 22, 2006; the lowest is 14°F, on December 22, 1990.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1983, with 26.26 in.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00044025; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00044025. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Hollister?
Over a year 87% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Hollister, 5.3 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (92%) and December the cloudiest (78%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 80% | 2.7 |
| February | 79% | 3.6 |
| March | 82% | 4.9 |
| April | 84% | 6.2 |
| May | 88% | 7.3 |
| June | 92% | 8.1 |
| July | 91% | 7.6 |
| August | 90% | 6.9 |
| September | 91% | 5.8 |
| October | 89% | 4.4 |
| November | 85% | 3.1 |
| December | 78% | 2.4 |
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 Hollister need?
A normal year in Hollister brings 2,739 heating degree days, 49% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 412 cooling degree days, 55% fewer 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 3,401 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 491 | 0 |
| February | 382 | 0 |
| March | 339 | 1 |
| April | 253 | 7 |
| May | 156 | 27 |
| June | 68 | 56 |
| July | 31 | 84 |
| August | 17 | 107 |
| September | 39 | 91 |
| October | 119 | 37 |
| November | 324 | 2 |
| December | 519 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 2,739 | 412 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00044025. 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 Hollister been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 60.0°F, 1.4°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 58.6°F. 2 of the 2 complete years since 2024 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 60.6°F | +2.0°F | – |
| 2025 | 60.0°F | +1.4°F | – |
Over 107 complete years from 1877 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 0.8°F per century (+0.04°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00044025; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Hollister's climate compare?
Hollister is warmer than 70 of the other 218 places with their own NOAA record in California, and wetter than 90. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 58.6°F is warmer than 71%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Hollister is Csb: temperate, dry-summer, warm 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 Hollister share this climate record?
2 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.
- Ridgemark, CA3,051 people · 4 mi SE
- San Juan Bautista, CA2,118 people · 6 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 Hollister's climate
What is the coldest month in Hollister?
December, with a normal high of 59°F and a normal low of 38°F. The warmest is August (81°F by day, 54°F at night).
Does it snow in Hollister?
Rarely: NOAA's normal is 0.1 inch a year.
What is the rainiest month in Hollister?
January, with 3.10 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is July with 0.00 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Hollister in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Hollister in zone 9b in ZIP code 95023, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Hollister's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 27°F (20 years, 1991-2020): zone 9b.
How late can frost come in Hollister?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after February 19; in one year in ten it comes after March 28. Waiting until March 28 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Hollister in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- California climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Paicines (4 mi W), CA10 miles from this station, 56.5°F a year
- Gilroy, CA13 miles from this station, 60.2°F a year
- Salinas, CA16 miles from this station, 58.1°F a year
- Watsonville Water Works, CA20 miles from this station, 57.6°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made