Honolulu, Hawaii climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Honolulu's normal year runs from 67°F January nights to 89°F August afternoons, with 16.4 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 25.6°C, January lows of 19°C, August highs of 32°C, 417 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationHonolulu International Airport
- Station IDUSW00022521
- Location21.32°N 157.93°W
- Elevation7 ft (2 m)
- From the center5 miles
- Population (census place)344,967
On October 23, the normal high in Honolulu is 86°F and the normal low 74°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 26%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Honolulu.
- Jan 81° 67°
- Feb 81° 67°
- Mar 81° 68°
- Apr 83° 70°
- May 85° 72°
- Jun 87° 74°
- Jul 88° 75°
- Aug 89° 76°
- Sep 88° 75°
- Oct 87° 74°
- Nov 84° 72°
- Dec 82° 69°
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 Honolulu each month?
August is the warmest month, with normal highs of 89°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 67°F. The most precipitation falls in March (2.36 in), the least in June (0.50 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 | 81°F | 67°F | 73.6°F | 1.84 | 8 | <1 | <1 | 11 h |
| February | 81°F | 67°F | 73.8°F | 1.94 | 8 | <1 | <1 | 11 h 30 min |
| March | 81°F | 68°F | 74.7°F | 2.36 | 9 | <1 | <1 | 12 h |
| April | 83°F | 70°F | 76.6°F | 0.77 | 8 | <1 | <1 | 12 h 40 min |
| May | 85°F | 72°F | 78.2°F | 0.82 | 6 | 1 | <1 | 13 h 10 min |
| June | 87°F | 74°F | 80.3°F | 0.50 | 6 | 2 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| July | 88°F | 75°F | 81.6°F | 0.52 | 7 | 7 | <1 | 13 h 20 min |
| August | 89°F | 76°F | 82.2°F | 0.84 | 6 | 10 | <1 | 12 h 50 min |
| September | 88°F | 75°F | 81.6°F | 0.88 | 7 | 9 | <1 | 12 h 20 min |
| October | 87°F | 74°F | 80.4°F | 1.51 | 8 | 3 | <1 | 11 h 40 min |
| November | 84°F | 72°F | 78.0°F | 2.25 | 9 | <1 | <1 | 11 h 10 min |
| December | 82°F | 69°F | 75.5°F | 2.18 | 9 | <1 | <1 | 10 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 85°F | 72°F | 78.0°F | 16.41 | 89 | 32 | <1 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27°C | 19°C | 23.1°C | 47 mm |
| February | 27°C | 19°C | 23.2°C | 49 mm |
| March | 27°C | 20°C | 23.7°C | 60 mm |
| April | 28°C | 21°C | 24.8°C | 20 mm |
| May | 29°C | 22°C | 25.7°C | 21 mm |
| June | 31°C | 23°C | 26.8°C | 13 mm |
| July | 31°C | 24°C | 27.6°C | 13 mm |
| August | 32°C | 24°C | 27.9°C | 21 mm |
| September | 31°C | 24°C | 27.6°C | 22 mm |
| October | 31°C | 23°C | 26.9°C | 38 mm |
| November | 29°C | 22°C | 25.6°C | 57 mm |
| December | 28°C | 21°C | 24.2°C | 55 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00022521; 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 Honolulu?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in January, February, March, April, May, November and December. Of those, May has the fewest days with rain (6).
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 USW00022521.
What hardiness zone is each Honolulu ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Honolulu's 9 ZIP code areas are all in zone 12b. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.
Source: USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; ZIP areas in the place: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) lies in the place.
How hot and how cold does it get in Honolulu?
In a normal year in Honolulu, 32 days a year reach 90°F, nights almost never fall to freezing and 89 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 32a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 89a normal year
The highest temperature in Honolulu's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1940) is 95°F, on August 31, 2019; the lowest is 52°F, on January 20, 1969.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1965, with 42.78 in.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00022521; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), NWS threaded record HNLthr. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How humid and windy is Honolulu, and how clear are its skies?
The summer (June-August) dew point averages 67°F. The muggiest month is September, with an average dew point of 68°F, above the 65°F at which most people call the air sticky; the driest air comes in February (62°F). July is the windiest month (12.2 mph on average), and May has the most clear or nearly clear hours (47%).
| Month | Dew point | Humidity | Afternoon humidity | Wind | Clear or few clouds | Overcast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63°F | 71% | 59% | 8.6 mph | 47% | 6% |
| February | 62°F | 68% | 57% | 9.4 mph | 46% | 6% |
| March | 64°F | 68% | 57% | 10.4 mph | 43% | 6% |
| April | 64°F | 66% | 55% | 10.4 mph | 43% | 5% |
| May | 66°F | 65% | 53% | 10.8 mph | 47% | 2% |
| June | 66°F | 64% | 52% | 11.7 mph | 43% | 3% |
| July | 67°F | 64% | 52% | 12.2 mph | 42% | 3% |
| August | 68°F | 65% | 52% | 11.0 mph | 47% | 2% |
| September | 68°F | 67% | 55% | 9.7 mph | 47% | 3% |
| October | 68°F | 70% | 58% | 9.2 mph | 44% | 6% |
| November | 65°F | 70% | 60% | 10.1 mph | 41% | 7% |
| December | 64°F | 71% | 60% | 8.4 mph | 43% | 7% |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 hourly normals, station USW00022521. Monthly averages of all hours; afternoon humidity at 3 p.m. local standard time; sky as the share of hours NOAA's observations rate clear or few clouds (a dash where NOAA publishes no sky value).
How sunny is Honolulu?
Over a year 85% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Honolulu, 5.7 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (88%) and March the cloudiest (79%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 89th (with 2 others) in sunshine.
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 82% | 4.3 |
| February | 81% | 4.8 |
| March | 79% | 5.5 |
| April | 83% | 6.3 |
| May | 86% | 6.8 |
| June | 88% | 7.1 |
| July | 88% | 7.0 |
| August | 87% | 6.7 |
| September | 88% | 6.2 |
| October | 84% | 5.2 |
| November | 82% | 4.3 |
| December | 81% | 3.9 |
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 Honolulu need?
A normal year in Honolulu brings 0 heating degree days, 100% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 4,767 cooling degree days, 5.3 times the median (908). No month reaches 300 heating degree days. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 10,242 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 268 |
| February | 0 | 246 |
| March | 0 | 299 |
| April | 0 | 348 |
| May | 0 | 408 |
| June | 0 | 461 |
| July | 0 | 515 |
| August | 0 | 533 |
| September | 0 | 498 |
| October | 0 | 477 |
| November | 0 | 389 |
| December | 0 | 326 |
| Year (annual) | 0 | 4,767 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00022521. 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 Honolulu been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 79.3°F, 1.3°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 78.0°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 78.3°F | +0.3°F | 21.34 |
| 2022 | 78.3°F | +0.3°F | 12.15 |
| 2023 | 78.6°F | +0.6°F | 13.48 |
| 2024 | 78.2°F | +0.2°F | 10.84 |
| 2025 | 79.3°F | +1.3°F | 15.01 |
Over 128 complete years from 1883 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 1.7°F per century (+0.10°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00022521; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Honolulu's climate compare?
Honolulu is warmer than 16 of the other 17 places with their own NOAA record in Hawaii, and wetter than 3. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 78.0°F is warmer than 100%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Honolulu is BSh: hot semi-arid steppe. 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 Honolulu share this climate record?
5 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.
- Pearl City, HI45,079 people · 6 mi N
- Waimalu, HI14,176 people · 5 mi N
- Halawa, HI13,809 people · 4 mi N
- Hickam Housing, HI9,195 people · 2 mi W
- Aiea, HI9,155 people · 4 mi N
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 Honolulu's climate
What is the coldest month in Honolulu?
January, with a normal high of 81°F and a normal low of 67°F. The warmest is August (89°F by day, 76°F at night).
What is the rainiest month in Honolulu?
March, with 2.36 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is June with 0.50 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Honolulu in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Honolulu in zone 12b across its 9 ZIP code areas (12b in 96819, the largest). By the same method at Honolulu's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 59°F (30 years, 1991-2020): zone 12b.
Nearby and next
- Honolulu in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Hawaii climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Ewa Beach, HI4 miles from this station, 75.3°F a year
- Waikiki 717.2, HI8 miles from this station, 77.6°F a year
- Manoa Lyon Arbo 785.2, HI8 miles from this station, 72.4°F a year
- Ewa Kalaeloa Airport, HI9 miles from this station, 77.0°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made