Lake Arrowhead, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Average temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, with a derived climate comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Lake Arrowhead's primary NOAA station, LAKE ARROWHEAD.
The climate verdict for Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead, California has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 51°F. Its climate comfort score of 63/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 46% of station-mapped location scores.
- 51°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 63/100
- comfort score, above 46% of station-mapped location scores
- 37.7"
- annual precipitation · 22" snow
- 181 days
- frost-free growing season
Lake Arrowhead: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00044671 · Lake Arrowhead, CA 51°F mean · 37.7" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-MID · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 51°F
- RANK-MID #3,087
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Jefferson
- PRCP-MID 37.7"
- SWING-MID 33°F
- COMF-MID 63/100
- LOAD-HEAT 5,433 HDD
- STN-1 USC00044671
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Jefferson, NC (+ 0 °F mean)
Instrument codes from this station's NOAA 1991–2020 normals, mean temperature, corpus warmth rank, photo-finish peer station, precipitation band, seasonal swing, comfort composite, degree-day load, and field book, not a livability rating.
Mean-temperature neighbourhood
Nationwide NOAA normal poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every CA station list.
- Lake Arrowhead (this station) 51°F
- Cold Mckenzie Rvr Ra…, OR 51°F
- Hot Floyd, VA 51°F
- Near Jefferson, NC 51°F
- Near Hood Rvr, OR 51°F
Climate Living Index · Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead: 59/100 · grade C
Lake Arrowhead publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Lake Arrowhead, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 63/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 37.7 in · 2.7 from 35 in | 90/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 122 calendar days | 63/100 · C |
| Frost-free season | 181 days/year | 51/100 · D |
| Snowfall burden | 22.4 inches/year | 46/100 · D |
| Annual temperature balance | 51.1°F · 16.4° from 67.5°F | 45/100 · D |
Lake Arrowhead · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Lake Arrowhead is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 36.0°F and warmest-month mean 69.4°F place this station in temperate, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Csb). Class Csb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: temperate, specifically temperate, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Csb
- Group
- Temperate
- Warmest month
- 69.4°F
- Coldest month
- 36.0°F
Source: official public datasets monthly normals (1991–2020) at the city’s primary station. This is a station classification, not a mapped regional consensus.
National standing · heating-led station
Where Lake Arrowhead sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Lake Arrowhead's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 45th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- 53rd percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 85%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Lake Arrowhead is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Lake Arrowhead compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Lake Arrowhead's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
63 46th percentile score exceeds 46% of 6,189 station-mapped location scores
- 0–10: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 10–20: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 20–30: 96 station-mapped locations (2%). Below this entry.
- 30–40: 280 station-mapped locations (5%). Below this entry.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). Below this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). This entry sits in this band.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). Above this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Above this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44°F (7°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 8.4" | 3.0" | 21.6 | 0.0 |
| February | 45°F (7°C) | 30°F (-1°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 9.9" | 5.3" | 19.1 | 0.0 |
| March | 52°F (11°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 5.2" | 6.7" | 16.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 60°F (16°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 2.8" | 2.8" | 10.5 | 0.0 |
| May | 67°F (19°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 1.1" | 0.8" | 1.8 | 0.4 |
| June | 76°F (25°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 1.0 |
| July | 81°F (27°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 69°F (21°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 5.2 |
| August | 82°F (28°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 69°F (21°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.8 |
| September | 74°F (23°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| October | 63°F (17°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 2.1" | 0.0" | 2.2 | 0.0 |
| November | 52°F (11°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 2.4" | 0.3" | 10.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 43°F (6°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 5.2" | 3.5" | 23.0 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 83°F around August 4, short of 90°F on every date, while 122 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 29°F near January 1.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 22, then returns to freezing around November 22, covering 122 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 20, when 24% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 29 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 35 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 4 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 29°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Lake Arrowhead.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 3.0"
6.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.3"
6.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.7"
5.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.8"
3.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.8"
1.7 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
0.7 days with precipitation
0.5 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
2.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
2.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.5"
4.1 days with precipitation
Lake Arrowhead's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 62% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 1%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 33.4°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 9.9"
- Driest month
- July, 0.1"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, March (62% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
When it rains in Lake Arrowhead, it arrives in quantity
37.7" of precipitation falls across only about 35 wet days here, averaging 1.09 inches each. Fewer days carry more water: the year's total is delivered in comparatively heavy events rather than persistent damp.
- Days with measurable precipitation
- about 35 a year, 10% of all days
- Average depth per wet day
- 1.09 inches
- Most wet days
- February, about 7
- Fewest wet days
- August, about 1
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, and a per-day average is not a forecast of any individual storm.
Winter brings real snow to Lake Arrowhead
Lake Arrowhead averages 22.4 inches of snowfall a year, with March the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 5 days that record measurable snow. That is depth accumulating on the ground, which is why it can exceed the annual precipitation figure: precipitation counts the liquid the snow melts down to, and fresh snow is mostly air.
- Annual snowfall: 22.4 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 5 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 6% of the year's precipitation.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals. The ten-to-one ratio is a convention, not a measurement: real ratios vary with temperature, so treat the share as an order of magnitude rather than an exact split.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
November 2
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 5
50% probability date
Growing Season
181 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
5,433
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
401
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
August
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Lake Arrowhead on two NOAA annual-normal axes (mean temperature and annual precipitation). Chip rows use distinct link sets.
Closest by average temperature
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual mean temperature (51°F here).
- Alpine, UT 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Baiting Hollow, NY 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Burr Oak, KS 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Cambridge, NE 51°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (37.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Gibson City, IL 37.7" · 0.0" off
- Charles City, IA 37.7" · 0.0" off
- Lexington, TX 37.7" · 0.0" off
- Prairie Du Chien, WI 37.7" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Lake Arrowhead
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Lake Arrowhead's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 5,433 annual heating degree days against 401 for cooling. Its 33.4°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Lake Arrowhead's frost-free season lasts about 181 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Lake Arrowhead coldest normal
December
The monthly mean of 36°F (2°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Lake Arrowhead typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Lake Arrowhead snow peak
March
Lake Arrowhead averages 22.4 inches of snow a year, with March the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Lake Arrowhead's climate
How much snow does Lake Arrowhead get? ▼
How cold does Lake Arrowhead get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Lake Arrowhead? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Lake Arrowhead's primary station: LAKE ARROWHEAD (USC00044671). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The 2024 Census Gazetteer identifies the exact name-and-state match as a census-designated place (GEOID 0639444), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Lake Arrowhead: exact normalized name + state only, no fuzzy expansion, so nearby differently spelled facilities stay unmatched.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Lake Arrowhead comes from its primary NOAA station record. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor - each value is rendered from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 1991–2020 normals.