La Mesa, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put La Mesa's center at January lows of 44°F and July highs of 83°F, a yearly mean of 64.2°F and 11.9 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, El Cajon (6 miles E, 495 ft), has January lows of 43°F and July highs of 86°F.
60,767 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 69° 44°
- Feb 68° 46°
- Mar 70° 48°
- Apr 72° 51°
- May 74° 55°
- Jun 78° 58°
- Jul 83° 62°
- Aug 86° 64°
- Sep 85° 61°
- Oct 80° 56°
- Nov 74° 48°
- Dec 68° 44°
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 La Mesa's center.
What is each month like in La Mesa?
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. | El Cajon high | El Cajon low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69°F | 44°F | 56.3°F | 2.36 | 69°F | 43°F |
| February | 68°F | 46°F | 56.8°F | 2.58 | 69°F | 44°F |
| March | 70°F | 48°F | 58.7°F | 1.94 | 71°F | 48°F |
| April | 72°F | 51°F | 61.3°F | 0.91 | 75°F | 51°F |
| May | 74°F | 55°F | 64.4°F | 0.30 | 76°F | 56°F |
| June | 78°F | 58°F | 68.2°F | 0.06 | 81°F | 59°F |
| July | 83°F | 62°F | 72.7°F | 0.04 | 86°F | 63°F |
| August | 86°F | 64°F | 74.5°F | 0.03 | 89°F | 65°F |
| September | 85°F | 61°F | 72.9°F | 0.13 | 87°F | 62°F |
| October | 80°F | 56°F | 67.5°F | 0.51 | 81°F | 56°F |
| November | 74°F | 48°F | 61.0°F | 1.07 | 75°F | 47°F |
| December | 68°F | 44°F | 55.7°F | 1.94 | 69°F | 42°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.9°C, January lows of 7°C, July highs of 28°C and 301 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 La Mesa 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Cajon | 6 mi E | 495 ft | 65.2°F | 43°F | 86°F | 11.6 | 0 | January 6 |
| San Diego Montgomery Field | 8 mi NW | 417 ft | 64.1°F | 46°F | 80°F | 11.0 | – | – |
| San Diego Miramar Naval Air Station | 9 mi NW | 477 ft | 64.2°F | 47°F | 80°F | 11.5 | – | – |
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 La Mesa?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, El Cajon (6 miles E, 495 ft). It gets 0 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after January 6 in half of years and the first autumn frost before December 21. Its record high is 114°F (2020) and its record low 19°F (1913), on the National Weather Service's long record for the area (kept since 1899).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts La Mesa in zone 10b across its 2 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 90% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (5.8 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); June is the sunniest month (94%) and February the cloudiest (83%).
El Cajon'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 La Mesa; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00042706; 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 La Mesa, ZIP code by ZIP code?
2 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in La Mesa. On NOAA's grid 91941 is the warmest (64.3°F a year) and 91942 the coolest (64.2°F), so the city is nearly uniform. Each row also names the nearest station record and its frost dates.
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.