Kinston, North Carolina climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Kinston's normal year runs from 35°F January nights to 91°F July afternoons, with 52.9 inches of precipitation and less than an inch of snow (0.7 in) a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.6°C, January lows of 2°C, July highs of 33°C, 1,343 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationKinston Agricultural Research
- Station IDUSC00314689
- Location35.30°N 77.57°W
- Elevation60 ft (18 m)
- Population19,519
On October 24, the normal high in Kinston is 74°F and the normal low 50°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 22%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Kinston.
- Jan 56° 35°
- Feb 60° 37°
- Mar 67° 42°
- Apr 75° 51°
- May 82° 60°
- Jun 88° 68°
- Jul 91° 71°
- Aug 89° 70°
- Sep 84° 64°
- Oct 76° 53°
- Nov 67° 44°
- 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 Kinston each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 91°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 35°F. The most precipitation falls in September (6.64 in), the least in February (3.20 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 | 56°F | 35°F | 45.7°F | 3.74 | 8 | <1 | 14 | 10 h |
| February | 60°F | 37°F | 48.4°F | 3.20 | 8 | <1 | 10 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 67°F | 42°F | 54.5°F | 3.84 | 8 | <1 | 6 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 75°F | 51°F | 63.4°F | 3.53 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 13 h |
| May | 82°F | 60°F | 70.7°F | 3.92 | 8 | 5 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 88°F | 68°F | 77.7°F | 5.53 | 9 | 14 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| July | 91°F | 71°F | 81.0°F | 5.79 | 11 | 21 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| August | 89°F | 70°F | 79.2°F | 6.36 | 10 | 16 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 84°F | 64°F | 74.0°F | 6.64 | 8 | 6 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 76°F | 53°F | 64.6°F | 3.56 | 6 | 1 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 67°F | 44°F | 55.2°F | 3.46 | 7 | <1 | 5 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 59°F | 38°F | 48.5°F | 3.29 | 8 | <1 | 11 | 9 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 74°F | 53°F | 63.6°F | 52.86 | 100 | 62 | 45 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 13°C | 2°C | 7.6°C | 95 mm |
| February | 16°C | 3°C | 9.1°C | 81 mm |
| March | 19°C | 6°C | 12.5°C | 98 mm |
| April | 24°C | 11°C | 17.4°C | 90 mm |
| May | 28°C | 15°C | 21.5°C | 100 mm |
| June | 31°C | 20°C | 25.4°C | 140 mm |
| July | 33°C | 22°C | 27.2°C | 147 mm |
| August | 32°C | 21°C | 26.2°C | 162 mm |
| September | 29°C | 18°C | 23.3°C | 169 mm |
| October | 24°C | 12°C | 18.1°C | 90 mm |
| November | 19°C | 7°C | 12.9°C | 88 mm |
| December | 15°C | 3°C | 9.2°C | 84 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00314689; 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 Kinston?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in March, April, May, September, October and November. Of those, October 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 USC00314689.
When is the last frost in Kinston?
In Kinston, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 25 in half of years and after April 7 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 11 in half of years and before October 29 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 251 year in 10 after April 7; 9 in 10 after March 9
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- November 111 year in 10 before October 29; 9 in 10 before December 2
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 232 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 258 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 13 in half of springs and before November 26 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Kinston in zone 8a in ZIP code 28504, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Kinston's NOAA station is in zone 8b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 16°F (21 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in North Carolina · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00314689; 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 Kinston?
In a normal year in Kinston, 62 days a year reach 90°F (2 of them 100°F or more), 45 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 100 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 62a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 2a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 45a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 100a normal year
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00314689.
How sunny is Kinston?
Over a year 78% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Kinston, 4.5 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (82%) and February the cloudiest (73%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 75% | 2.6 |
| February | 73% | 3.3 |
| March | 74% | 4.3 |
| April | 78% | 5.6 |
| May | 78% | 6.1 |
| June | 81% | 6.4 |
| July | 82% | 6.2 |
| August | 80% | 5.5 |
| September | 77% | 4.6 |
| October | 77% | 3.7 |
| November | 78% | 2.9 |
| December | 74% | 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 Kinston need?
A normal year in Kinston brings 2,503 heating degree days, 53% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 2,014 cooling degree days, 2.2 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 5,585 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 600 | 2 |
| February | 469 | 4 |
| March | 341 | 18 |
| April | 128 | 78 |
| May | 27 | 206 |
| June | 2 | 384 |
| July | 0 | 496 |
| August | 0 | 440 |
| September | 6 | 276 |
| October | 101 | 87 |
| November | 310 | 18 |
| December | 518 | 5 |
| Year (annual) | 2,503 | 2,014 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00314689. 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 Kinston been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 62.2°F, 1.4°F below the 1991-2020 normal of 63.6°F. 0 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 62.6°F | −1.0°F | 56.20 |
| 2022 | 62.7°F | −0.9°F | 34.50 |
| 2023 | 63.3°F | −0.4°F | 44.05 |
| 2024 | 63.5°F | −0.1°F | 51.64 |
| 2025 | 62.2°F | −1.4°F | 44.03 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00314689. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Kinston's climate compare?
Kinston is warmer than 123 of the other 130 places with their own NOAA record in North Carolina, and wetter than 80. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 63.6°F is warmer than 84%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Kinston 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 Kinston share this climate record?
6 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.
- Grifton, NC2,514 people · 9 mi NE
- Jackson Heights, NC1,002 people · 6 mi SW
- Deep Run, NC548 people · 13 mi SW
- Cove City, NC384 people · 16 mi SE
- Dover, NC347 people · 10 mi SE
- Graingers, NC32 people · 4 mi E
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 Kinston's other NOAA stations record?
One more NOAA station keeps 1991-2020 normals in or near Kinston. This page uses Kinston Agricultural Research; the other differs by site and elevation:
| Station | From this station | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kinston (7 mi SE) USC00314684 | 7 mi S | 24 ft | 61.2°F | 31°F | 90°F | 53.0 | – | April 1 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for each station. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
Questions about Kinston's climate
What is the coldest month in Kinston?
January, with a normal high of 56°F and a normal low of 35°F. The warmest is July (91°F by day, 71°F at night).
Does it snow in Kinston?
Rarely: NOAA's normal is 0.7 inch a year.
What is the rainiest month in Kinston?
September, with 6.64 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 3.20 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Kinston in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Kinston in zone 8a in ZIP code 28504, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Kinston's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 16°F (21 years, 1991-2020): zone 8b.
How late can frost come in Kinston?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after March 25; in one year in ten it comes after April 7. Waiting until April 7 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Kinston in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- North Carolina climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Snow Hill, NC12 miles from this station, 61.7°F a year
- Goldsboro, NC22 miles from this station, 63.3°F a year
- Greenville, NC25 miles from this station, 62.1°F a year
- Richlands, NC26 miles from this station, 60.9°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made