Memphis, Tennessee climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records

What is the weather like in Memphis each month?

July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 92°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 33°F. The most precipitation falls in April (5.87 in), the least in September (3.03 in).

Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:

• Jan
• Feb
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Jul
• Aug
• Sep
• Oct
• Nov
• Dec

When is the best weather to visit Memphis?

Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May 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.

When is the last frost in Memphis?

In Memphis, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 16 in half of years and after April 4 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 16 in half of years and before November 2 in one year in ten.

Last spring frost, half of years after

March 161 year in 10 after April 4; 9 in 10 after February 27

First autumn frost, half of years before

November 161 year in 10 before November 2; 9 in 10 before December 3

NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 244 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 268 days.

A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 4 in half of springs and before November 28 in half of autumns.

The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Memphis in zone 8a across its 29 ZIP code areas (8a in 38109, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Memphis's NOAA station is in zone 8a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 14°F (30 complete years).

Frost dates for every NOAA station in Tennessee · Frost dates by ZIP code

What hardiness zone is each Memphis ZIP code in?

The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Memphis's 29 ZIP code areas are all in zone 8a. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.

How hot and how cold does it get in Memphis?

In a normal year in Memphis, 72 days a year reach 90°F (3 of them 100°F or more), 44 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 111 days bring measurable precipitation.

Days at 90°F or more

72a normal year

Days at 100°F or more

3a normal year

Nights at 32°F or colder

44a normal year

Days that stay below freezing

4high of 32°F or less

Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation

111a normal year

Days with 1 inch of snow or more

1a normal year

The highest temperature in Memphis's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1875) is 108°F, on July 13, 1980; the lowest is −13°F, on December 24, 1963.

The wettest calendar year on that record is 1957, with 76.85 in; the snowiest season is 1917–18, with 25.1 inches.

How humid and windy is Memphis, and how clear are its skies?

The summer (June-August) dew point averages 69°F. The muggiest month is July, with an average dew point of 70°F, above the 65°F at which most people call the air sticky; the driest air comes in January (32°F). March is the windiest month (9.5 mph on average), and September has the most clear or nearly clear hours (58%).

How sunny is Memphis?

Over a year 77% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Memphis, 4.4 kWh per square metre a day. August is the sunniest month (83%) and February the cloudiest (65%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 243rd (with 32 others) in sunshine.

How much heating and cooling does Memphis need?

A normal year in Memphis brings 2,875 heating degree days, 46% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 2,314 cooling degree days, 2.5 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 5,766 growing degree days a year above 50°F.

Has Memphis been warmer than normal lately?

2025 averaged 64.2°F, 0.8°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 63.4°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.

Over 146 complete years from 1872 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 0.0°F per century (+0.00°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.

Which places near Memphis 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.

• Southaven, MSalso near: Olive Branch (8 mi, 61.8°F a year); Hernando (10 mi, 61.2°F a year)57,493 people · 7 mi S
• Horn Lake, MS26,574 people · 8 mi SW
• Bridgetown, MS2,955 people · 12 mi S
• Lynchburg, MS1,894 people · 9 mi SW
• Walls, MS1,412 people · 14 mi SW
• Lakeview, MS516 people · 10 mi SW

What do Memphis's other NOAA stations record?

One more NOAA station keeps 1991-2020 normals in or near Memphis. This page uses Memphis International Airport; the other differs by site and elevation:

Nearby and next

• Memphis in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
• Tennessee climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
• Olive Branch, MS11 miles from this station, 61.8°F a year
• Germantown, TN14 miles from this station, 62.2°F a year
• West Memphis, AR15 miles from this station, 62.6°F a year
• Hernando, MS17 miles from this station, 61.2°F a year
• Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side

Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made