Hot Springs, Arkansas climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Hot Springs's normal year runs from 33°F January nights to 93°F July afternoons, with 52.9 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.3°C, January lows of 0°C, July highs of 34°C, 1,343 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationHot Springs Asos
- Station IDUSW00003962
- Location34.29°N 93.06°W
- Elevation535 ft (163 m)
- Population37,971
On October 23, the normal high in Hot Springs is 73°F and the normal low 50°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 29%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Hot Springs.
- Jan 53° 33°
- Feb 57° 36°
- Mar 66° 43°
- Apr 74° 51°
- May 81° 61°
- Jun 89° 69°
- Jul 93° 72°
- Aug 93° 71°
- Sep 86° 64°
- Oct 75° 52°
- Nov 63° 42°
- Dec 54° 35°
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 Hot Springs each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 93°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 33°F. The most precipitation falls in May (5.89 in), the least in August (3.33 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 | 53°F | 33°F | 42.6°F | 3.39 | 9 | <1 | 16 | 10 h 10 min |
| February | 57°F | 36°F | 46.4°F | 4.10 | 9 | <1 | 11 | 11 h |
| March | 66°F | 43°F | 54.5°F | 4.90 | 10 | <1 | 4 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 74°F | 51°F | 62.7°F | 5.09 | 10 | <1 | <1 | 13 h |
| May | 81°F | 61°F | 71.0°F | 5.89 | 12 | 3 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 89°F | 69°F | 79.1°F | 4.54 | 9 | 16 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| July | 93°F | 72°F | 82.8°F | 3.99 | 9 | 24 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| August | 93°F | 71°F | 82.1°F | 3.33 | 8 | 23 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 86°F | 64°F | 75.2°F | 3.62 | 7 | 11 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 75°F | 52°F | 63.8°F | 4.89 | 9 | 1 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 63°F | 42°F | 52.5°F | 4.49 | 9 | <1 | 6 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 54°F | 35°F | 44.7°F | 4.64 | 10 | <1 | 14 | 9 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 74°F | 52°F | 63.1°F | 52.87 | 109 | 78 | 52 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 11°C | 0°C | 5.9°C | 86 mm |
| February | 14°C | 2°C | 8.0°C | 104 mm |
| March | 19°C | 6°C | 12.5°C | 124 mm |
| April | 24°C | 11°C | 17.1°C | 129 mm |
| May | 27°C | 16°C | 21.7°C | 150 mm |
| June | 32°C | 21°C | 26.2°C | 115 mm |
| July | 34°C | 22°C | 28.2°C | 101 mm |
| August | 34°C | 22°C | 27.8°C | 85 mm |
| September | 30°C | 18°C | 24.0°C | 92 mm |
| October | 24°C | 11°C | 17.7°C | 124 mm |
| November | 17°C | 6°C | 11.4°C | 114 mm |
| December | 12°C | 2°C | 7.1°C | 118 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station. Hot Springs's own co-op station Hot Springs (1 mi NNE) does: 1 inches of snow in a normal year (see the other stations below).
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00003962; 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 Hot Springs?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in March, April, May and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (9).
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 USW00003962.
When is the last frost in Hot Springs?
In Hot Springs, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 24 in half of years and after April 13 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 9 in half of years and before October 26 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
- March 241 year in 10 after April 13; 9 in 10 after March 3
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- November 91 year in 10 before October 26; 9 in 10 before November 26
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 230 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 255 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 8 in half of springs and before November 21 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hot Springs in zone 8a across its 2 ZIP code areas (8a in 71901, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Hot Springs's NOAA station is in zone 8a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 15°F (28 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Arkansas · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00003962; 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.
What hardiness zone is each Hot Springs ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Hot Springs's 2 ZIP code areas are all in zone 8a. 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 Hot Springs?
In a normal year in Hot Springs, 78 days a year reach 90°F (10 of them 100°F or more), 52 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 109 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 78a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 10a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 52a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 2high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 109a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1986) is 111°F, on August 30, 2000; the lowest is −3°F, on February 16, 2021.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2015, with 65.60 in; the snowiest season is 1987–88, with 13.9 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00003962; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USW00003962. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Hot Springs?
Over a year 75% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Hot Springs, 4.4 kWh per square metre a day. August is the sunniest month (81%) and February the cloudiest (64%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 70% | 2.5 |
| February | 64% | 3.0 |
| March | 69% | 4.1 |
| April | 72% | 5.2 |
| May | 73% | 5.7 |
| June | 80% | 6.4 |
| July | 81% | 6.3 |
| August | 81% | 5.7 |
| September | 80% | 4.9 |
| October | 76% | 3.8 |
| November | 72% | 2.8 |
| December | 69% | 2.3 |
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 Hot Springs need?
A normal year in Hot Springs brings 2,858 heating degree days, 47% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 2,207 cooling degree days, 2.4 times 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 5,616 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 694 | 1 |
| February | 522 | 2 |
| March | 342 | 17 |
| April | 131 | 62 |
| May | 24 | 210 |
| June | 0 | 423 |
| July | 0 | 550 |
| August | 0 | 532 |
| September | 8 | 313 |
| October | 123 | 86 |
| November | 384 | 10 |
| December | 631 | 2 |
| Year (annual) | 2,858 | 2,207 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00003962. 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 Hot Springs been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 64.2°F, 1.1°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 63.1°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 63.4°F | +0.3°F | 39.06 |
| 2022 | 63.3°F | +0.2°F | 41.63 |
| 2023 | 64.7°F | +1.6°F | 51.44 |
| 2024 | 65.4°F | +2.3°F | 45.89 |
| 2025 | 64.2°F | +1.1°F | 47.31 |
Over 36 complete years from 1987 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.6°F per century (+0.14°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00003962; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Hot Springs's climate compare?
Hot Springs is warmer than 71 of the other 85 places with their own NOAA record in Arkansas, and wetter than 54. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 63.1°F is warmer than 83%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Hot Springs is Cfa: temperate, no dry season, hot 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 Hot Springs share this climate record?
4 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.
- Lake Hamilton, AR1,912 people · 10 mi N
- Midway, AR372 people · 6 mi SE
- Donaldson, AR280 people · 9 mi SE
- Friendship, AR166 people · 6 mi SE
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
What do Hot Springs's other NOAA stations record?
One more NOAA station keeps 1991-2020 normals in or near Hot Springs. This page uses Hot Springs Asos; the other differs by site and elevation:
| Station | From this station | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hot Springs (1 mi NNE) USC00033466 | 15 mi N | 626 ft | 62.6°F | 32°F | 93°F | 58.0 | 1 | March 19 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for each station. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
Questions about Hot Springs's climate
What is the coldest month in Hot Springs?
January, with a normal high of 53°F and a normal low of 33°F. The warmest is July (93°F by day, 72°F at night).
Does it snow in Hot Springs?
Yes. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Hot Springs's NOAA station; Hot Springs's own co-op station Hot Springs (1 mi NNE) records 1 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Hot Springs?
May, with 5.89 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is August with 3.33 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Hot Springs in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Hot Springs in zone 8a across its 2 ZIP code areas (8a in 71901, the largest). By the same method at Hot Springs's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 15°F (28 years, 1991-2020): zone 8a.
How late can frost come in Hot Springs?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after March 24; in one year in ten it comes after April 13. Waiting until April 13 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Hot Springs in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Arkansas climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Degray Lake State Park, AR6 miles from this station, 60.9°F a year
- Arkadelphia, AR10 miles from this station, 63.2°F a year
- Malvern, AR15 miles from this station, 61.3°F a year
- Blakely Mountain Dam, AR21 miles from this station, 59.6°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made