Lee Vining, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Lee Vining's primary NOAA station, LEE VINING.
The climate verdict for Lee Vining
Dryness leads the climate profile for Lee Vining, California, with 15.1 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 49°F. At 44/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 10% of scores.
- 49°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 44/100
- comfort score, above 10% of station-mapped location scores
- 15.1"
- annual precipitation · 70" snow
- 139 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Lee Vining: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00044881 · Lee Vining, CA 49°F mean · 15.1" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 49°F
- RANK-COOL #2,333
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Pullman Moscow…
- PRCP-DRY 15.1"
- SWING-MID 38°F
- COMF-LOW 44/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,236 HDD
- STN-1 USC00044881
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Pullman Moscow Rgnl, WA (+ 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.
- Lee Vining (this station) 49°F
- Hot Summer Lake, OR 49°F
- Near Pullman Moscow…, WA 49°F
- Near Mitchell, OR 49°F
- Near Maxwell, NM 49°F
Climate Living Index · Lee Vining
Lee Vining: 28/100 · grade F
Lee Vining publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Lee Vining, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 44/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Annual temperature balance | 48.6°F · 18.9° from 67.5°F | 34/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 167 calendar days | 34/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 15.1 in · 19.9 from 35 in | 29/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 139 days/year | 18/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 69.5 inches/year | 10/100 · F |
Lee Vining · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Lee Vining is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 30.8°F and warmest-month mean 69.0°F place this station in continental, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Dsb). Class Dsb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dsb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 69.0°F
- Coldest month
- 30.8°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 Lee Vining sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Lee Vining's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 34th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 82%
- Lee Vining's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 72%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Lee Vining is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Lee Vining compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Lee Vining's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
44 10th percentile score exceeds 10% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Above this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Above this entry.
- 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 | 41°F (5°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 31°F (-1°C) | 2.7" | 19.0" | 29.5 | 0.0 |
| February | 44°F (7°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 2.7" | 16.1" | 26.1 | 0.0 |
| March | 51°F (11°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 1.8" | 11.6" | 24.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 58°F (14°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 0.7" | 3.3" | 15.4 | 0.0 |
| May | 66°F (19°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 0.7" | 1.6" | 5.1 | 0.0 |
| June | 77°F (25°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 0.4" | 0.2" | 0.6 | 0.7 |
| July | 84°F (29°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 69°F (21°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 4.3 |
| August | 83°F (28°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.9 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.6 | 0.1 |
| October | 65°F (18°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 0.8" | 1.4" | 9.5 | 0.0 |
| November | 53°F (12°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 1.4" | 4.7" | 23.1 | 0.0 |
| December | 42°F (6°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 2.6" | 11.6" | 28.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 85°F around July 22, short of 90°F on every date, while 167 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 20°F near January 3.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 13, then returns to freezing around October 30, covering 167 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 16, when 24% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is September 3 at 7%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 50 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 30 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 31°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Lee Vining.
Where Lee Vining Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 15 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Lee Vining earns one nationally notable standing (outer quintile) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations, middle-of-the-pack metrics stay silent here.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 19.0"
6.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 16.1"
6.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 11.6"
5.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.3"
3.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.6"
4.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.2"
2.2 days with precipitation
3.3 days with precipitation
2.5 days with precipitation
2.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.4"
3.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.7"
3.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 11.6"
6.0 days with precipitation
Lee Vining's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 53% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 9%. 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 38.2°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 2.7"
- Driest month
- September, 0.3"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, December (53% 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.
How Lee Vining's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 50 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 15.1" between them, or roughly 0.30 inches on a typical wet day. That sits in the middle band: neither the many-light-days pattern of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes, nor the few-heavy-events pattern of the Gulf and the desert Southwest.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year and say nothing about the heaviest single storm on record.
Winter brings real snow to Lee Vining
Lee Vining averages 69.5 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 23 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: 69.5 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 23 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 46% 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
October 9
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 23
50% probability date
Growing Season
139 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,236
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
299
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Lee Vining 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 (49°F here).
- Antioch, IL 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Baker, NV 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Blissfield, MI 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Bloomingdale, MI 49°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (15.1" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Bly, OR 15.1" · 0.0" off
- Guernsey, WY 15.1" · 0.0" off
- Monticello, UT 15.1" · 0.0" off
- Potomac, MT 15.1" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Lee Vining
heating led · dry · mid swing
Lee Vining's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,236 annual heating degree days against 299 for cooling. Its 38.2°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 139 days are frost-free in a normal year. That short interval is consistent with the cold-season signal, but the measure does not predict the exact first or last freeze in any one year.
-
1. Lee Vining coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 31°F (-1°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Lee Vining typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Lee Vining snow peak
January
Lee Vining averages 69.5 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Lee Vining's climate
How much snow does Lee Vining get? ▼
How cold does Lee Vining get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Lee Vining? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Lee Vining's primary station: LEE VINING (USC00044881). 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 0640998), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Lee Vining: 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 Lee Vining 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.