Marion, North Carolina climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Marion's normal year runs from 28°F January nights to 85°F July afternoons, with 56.6 inches of precipitation and 7 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 14.4°C, January lows of −2°C, July highs of 30°C, 1,437 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationMarion
- Station IDUSC00315340
- Location35.68°N 82.01°W
- Elevation1,410 ft (430 m)
- Population7,534
On October 22, the normal high in Marion is 68°F and the normal low 45°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 27%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Marion.
- Jan 49° 28°
- Feb 53° 31°
- Mar 61° 37°
- Apr 70° 46°
- May 76° 55°
- Jun 82° 63°
- Jul 85° 67°
- Aug 84° 66°
- Sep 79° 60°
- Oct 70° 48°
- Nov 60° 38°
- Dec 51° 31°
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 Marion each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 85°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 28°F. The most precipitation falls in June (5.47 in), the least in February (3.65 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. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49°F | 28°F | 38.6°F | 4.69 | 1.9 | 9 | <1 | 23 | 10 h |
| February | 53°F | 31°F | 42.1°F | 3.65 | 2.1 | 8 | <1 | 20 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 61°F | 37°F | 49.0°F | 4.33 | 1.4 | 10 | <1 | 13 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 70°F | 46°F | 57.9°F | 4.90 | 0.0 | 10 | <1 | 4 | 13 h |
| May | 76°F | 55°F | 65.4°F | 5.30 | 0.0 | 11 | 1 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 82°F | 63°F | 72.7°F | 5.47 | 0.0 | 12 | 6 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| July | 85°F | 67°F | 76.0°F | 5.13 | 0.0 | 13 | 12 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| August | 84°F | 66°F | 75.0°F | 5.18 | 0.0 | 12 | 9 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 79°F | 60°F | 69.5°F | 4.75 | 0.0 | 10 | 3 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 70°F | 48°F | 58.7°F | 4.09 | 0.0 | 8 | <1 | 5 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 60°F | 38°F | 49.0°F | 4.18 | 0.0 | 8 | <1 | 15 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 51°F | 31°F | 41.2°F | 4.91 | 1.7 | 9 | <1 | 21 | 9 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 68°F | 48°F | 57.9°F | 56.58 | 7.1 | 119 | 32 | 101 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9°C | −2°C | 3.7°C | 119 mm | 5 cm |
| February | 12°C | 0°C | 5.6°C | 93 mm | 5 cm |
| March | 16°C | 3°C | 9.4°C | 110 mm | 4 cm |
| April | 21°C | 8°C | 14.4°C | 124 mm | 0 cm |
| May | 25°C | 13°C | 18.6°C | 135 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 28°C | 17°C | 22.6°C | 139 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 30°C | 19°C | 24.4°C | 130 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 29°C | 19°C | 23.9°C | 132 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 26°C | 16°C | 20.8°C | 121 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 21°C | 9°C | 14.8°C | 104 mm | 0 cm |
| November | 16°C | 3°C | 9.4°C | 106 mm | 0 cm |
| December | 11°C | −1°C | 5.1°C | 125 mm | 4 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00315340; 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 Marion?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, June, August, September and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (8).
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 USC00315340.
When is the last frost in Marion?
In Marion, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 5 in half of years and after April 21 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 1 in half of years and before October 18 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
- April 51 year in 10 after April 21; 9 in 10 after March 20
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- November 11 year in 10 before October 18; 9 in 10 before November 15
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 209 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 233 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 24 in half of springs and before November 11 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Marion in zone 7b in ZIP code 28752, the nearest ZIP area.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in North Carolina · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00315340; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026. 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 Marion?
In a normal year in Marion, 32 days a year reach 90°F (1 of them 100°F or more), 101 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 119 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 32a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 1a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 101a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 2high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 119a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 2a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1893) is 105°F, on July 22, 1926; the lowest is −11°F, on January 21, 1985.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2018, with 103.51 in; the snowiest season is 1965–66, with 30.2 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00315340; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00315340. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Marion?
Over a year 74% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Marion, 4.4 kWh per square metre a day. November is the sunniest month (77%) and February the cloudiest (70%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 73% | 2.6 |
| February | 70% | 3.3 |
| March | 71% | 4.3 |
| April | 74% | 5.4 |
| May | 74% | 5.9 |
| June | 76% | 6.2 |
| July | 75% | 5.8 |
| August | 76% | 5.4 |
| September | 76% | 4.7 |
| October | 77% | 3.8 |
| November | 77% | 3.0 |
| December | 71% | 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 Marion need?
A normal year in Marion brings 3,761 heating degree days, 30% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,203 cooling degree days, 33% more than 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 4,104 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 818 | 0 |
| February | 643 | 0 |
| March | 501 | 4 |
| April | 236 | 22 |
| May | 79 | 93 |
| June | 10 | 241 |
| July | 1 | 342 |
| August | 1 | 310 |
| September | 30 | 165 |
| October | 221 | 25 |
| November | 483 | 2 |
| December | 738 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 3,761 | 1,203 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00315340. 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 Marion been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 58.1°F, 0.2°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 57.9°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 59.8°F | +1.9°F | 53.85 | 5.5 |
| 2022 | 58.2°F | +0.3°F | 58.95 | 9.1 |
| 2023 | 58.9°F | +1.0°F | 56.69 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 59.4°F | +1.5°F | 73.84 | 0.0 |
| 2025 | 58.1°F | +0.2°F | 49.88 | 2.2 |
Over 42 complete years from 1954 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 3.3°F per century (+0.18°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00315340; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Marion's climate compare?
Marion is warmer than 36 of the other 130 places with their own NOAA record in North Carolina, and wetter than 99. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 57.9°F is warmer than 69%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Marion 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 Marion share this climate record?
3 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.
- Nebo, NC1,608 people · 6 mi E
- West Marion, NC1,018 people · 2 mi S
- Glenwood, NC181 people · 5 mi S
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Marion's climate
What is the coldest month in Marion?
January, with a normal high of 49°F and a normal low of 28°F. The warmest is July (85°F by day, 67°F at night).
Does it snow in Marion?
Yes: 7 inches in a normal year, falling on 3 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in February (2.1 inches).
What is the rainiest month in Marion?
June, with 5.47 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 3.65 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Marion in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Marion in zone 7b in ZIP code 28752, the nearest ZIP area.
How late can frost come in Marion?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 5; in one year in ten it comes after April 21. Waiting until April 21 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Marion in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- North Carolina climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Old Fort, NC7 miles from this station, 55.6°F a year
- Celo (2 mi S), NC14 miles from this station, 52.2°F a year
- Mount Mitchell, NC16 miles from this station, 42.9°F a year
- Spruce Pine, NC17 miles from this station, 52.5°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made