Johnson City, Tennessee climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Johnson City's center at January lows of 27°F and July highs of 87°F, a yearly mean of 57.0°F and 45.7 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Elizabethton (7 miles E, 1,487 ft), has January lows of 26°F and July highs of 86°F.
73,635 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 47° 27°
- Feb 52° 30°
- Mar 60° 36°
- Apr 70° 43°
- May 77° 52°
- Jun 84° 60°
- Jul 87° 64°
- Aug 86° 63°
- Sep 81° 57°
- Oct 71° 45°
- Nov 59° 35°
- Dec 50° 30°
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 Johnson City's center.
What is each month like in Johnson City?
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. | Elizabethton high | Elizabethton low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47°F | 27°F | 37.2°F | 3.65 | 46°F | 26°F |
| February | 52°F | 30°F | 40.8°F | 3.70 | 50°F | 28°F |
| March | 60°F | 36°F | 48.1°F | 4.03 | 59°F | 34°F |
| April | 70°F | 43°F | 56.8°F | 4.03 | 69°F | 42°F |
| May | 77°F | 52°F | 64.7°F | 4.30 | 77°F | 52°F |
| June | 84°F | 60°F | 72.2°F | 4.15 | 83°F | 60°F |
| July | 87°F | 64°F | 75.4°F | 4.93 | 86°F | 64°F |
| August | 86°F | 63°F | 74.6°F | 4.01 | 85°F | 62°F |
| September | 81°F | 57°F | 68.9°F | 3.03 | 80°F | 56°F |
| October | 71°F | 45°F | 57.8°F | 2.88 | 70°F | 44°F |
| November | 59°F | 35°F | 47.1°F | 3.14 | 59°F | 33°F |
| December | 50°F | 30°F | 40.0°F | 3.86 | 50°F | 29°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 13.9°C, January lows of −3°C, July highs of 30°C and 1,161 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 Johnson City 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elizabethton | 7 mi E | 1,487 ft | 55.9°F | 26°F | 86°F | 48.0 | 6 | April 19 |
| BristolBristol Airport | 9 mi N | 1,500 ft | 56.6°F | 26°F | 86°F | 44.0 | 9 | April 16 |
| Erwin1 mi W | 14 mi S | 1,720 ft | 55.4°F | 25°F | 85°F | 47.0 | 9 | April 21 |
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 Johnson City?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Elizabethton (7 miles E, 1,487 ft). It gets 6 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 19 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 24. Its record high is 105°F (1898) and its record low −21°F (1985) (kept since 1895).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Johnson City in zone 7b across its 4 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 73% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.2 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); August is the sunniest month (78%) and February the cloudiest (62%).
Elizabethton'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 Johnson City; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00402806; 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 Johnson City, ZIP code by ZIP code?
4 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Johnson City. On NOAA's grid 37615 is the warmest (57.1°F a year) and 37614 the coolest (56.7°F), so the city is nearly uniform. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 37601 | 7b | 56.9°F | 27°F | 87°F | 46.7 | Elizabethton (4 mi) | April 19 | October 24 |
| 37604 | 7b | 56.7°F | 27°F | 86°F | 47.6 | Elizabethton (8 mi) | April 19 | October 24 |
| 37614 | 7b | 56.7°F | 27°F | 87°F | 47.1 | Elizabethton (8 mi) | April 19 | October 24 |
| 37615 | 7b | 57.1°F | 27°F | 87°F | 44.7 | Bristol (6 mi) | April 16 | October 24 |
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.