Meriden, Connecticut climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Meriden's normal year runs from 19°F January nights to 84°F July afternoons, with 44.9 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.4°C, January lows of −7°C, July highs of 29°C, 1,139 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationMeriden Markham Municipal Airport
- Station IDUSW00054788
- Location41.51°N 72.83°W
- Elevation103 ft (31 m)
- From the center3 miles
- Population60,849
On October 14, the normal high in Meriden is 64°F and the normal low 42°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 39%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Meriden.
- Jan 37° 19°
- Feb 39° 20°
- Mar 48° 28°
- Apr 60° 38°
- May 70° 48°
- Jun 79° 57°
- Jul 84° 63°
- Aug 82° 61°
- Sep 75° 54°
- Oct 64° 42°
- Nov 52° 32°
- Dec 42° 25°
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 Meriden each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 84°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 19°F. The most precipitation falls in October (4.49 in), the least in February (2.93 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. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37°F | 19°F | 27.9°F | 3.05 | 10 | <1 | 28 | 9 h 30 min |
| February | 39°F | 20°F | 29.7°F | 2.93 | 9 | <1 | 25 | 10 h 40 min |
| March | 48°F | 28°F | 37.8°F | 4.05 | 9 | <1 | 21 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 60°F | 38°F | 48.8°F | 4.13 | 11 | <1 | 8 | 13 h 20 min |
| May | 70°F | 48°F | 59.1°F | 3.48 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 14 h 30 min |
| June | 79°F | 57°F | 67.9°F | 4.05 | 13 | 2 | <1 | 15 h 10 min |
| July | 84°F | 63°F | 73.3°F | 3.38 | 11 | 7 | <1 | 15 h |
| August | 82°F | 61°F | 71.7°F | 3.54 | 12 | 4 | <1 | 13 h 50 min |
| September | 75°F | 54°F | 64.5°F | 4.28 | 11 | 1 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 64°F | 42°F | 52.7°F | 4.49 | 12 | <1 | 5 | 11 h 10 min |
| November | 52°F | 32°F | 42.0°F | 3.36 | 10 | <1 | 16 | 9 h 50 min |
| December | 42°F | 25°F | 33.1°F | 4.12 | 11 | <1 | 26 | 9 h 10 min |
| Year (annual) | 61°F | 40°F | 50.7°F | 44.86 | 132 | 15 | 129 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 3°C | −7°C | −2.3°C | 77 mm |
| February | 4°C | −7°C | −1.3°C | 74 mm |
| March | 9°C | −2°C | 3.2°C | 103 mm |
| April | 16°C | 3°C | 9.3°C | 105 mm |
| May | 21°C | 9°C | 15.1°C | 88 mm |
| June | 26°C | 14°C | 19.9°C | 103 mm |
| July | 29°C | 17°C | 22.9°C | 86 mm |
| August | 28°C | 16°C | 22.1°C | 90 mm |
| September | 24°C | 12°C | 18.1°C | 109 mm |
| October | 18°C | 5°C | 11.5°C | 114 mm |
| November | 11°C | 0°C | 5.6°C | 85 mm |
| December | 5°C | −4°C | 0.6°C | 105 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station. The nearest record that keeps one, Burlington (20 miles away), gets 39 inches of snow in a normal year; elevation and distance can change that.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00054788; 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 Meriden?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June, July, August and September. Of those, July has the fewest days with rain (11).
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 USW00054788.
When is the last frost in Meriden?
In Meriden, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 26 in half of years and after May 9 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 16 in half of years and before October 4 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 261 year in 10 after May 9; 9 in 10 after April 11
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 161 year in 10 before October 4; 9 in 10 before November 1
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 175 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 198 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 10 in half of springs and before October 30 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Meriden in zone 6b across its 2 ZIP code areas (6b in 06450, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Meriden's NOAA station is in zone 6b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −4°F (19 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Connecticut · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00054788; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
What hardiness zone is each Meriden ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Meriden's 2 ZIP code areas are all in zone 6b. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.
Source: USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; ZIP areas in the place: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) lies in the place.
How hot and how cold does it get in Meriden?
In a normal year in Meriden, 15 days a year reach 90°F, 129 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 132 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 15a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 129a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 23high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 132a normal year
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00054788.
How sunny is Meriden?
Over a year 73% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Meriden, 3.9 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (79%) and December the cloudiest (67%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 352nd (with 32 others) in sunshine.
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 70% | 1.9 |
| February | 70% | 2.7 |
| March | 69% | 3.7 |
| April | 71% | 4.9 |
| May | 70% | 5.5 |
| June | 74% | 5.9 |
| July | 79% | 6.0 |
| August | 79% | 5.3 |
| September | 78% | 4.4 |
| October | 71% | 2.9 |
| November | 72% | 2.1 |
| December | 67% | 1.5 |
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 Meriden need?
A normal year in Meriden brings 5,892 heating degree days, 10% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 718 cooling degree days, 21% fewer than the median (908). Seven months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 2,927 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,152 | 0 |
| February | 990 | 0 |
| March | 842 | 0 |
| April | 489 | 4 |
| May | 211 | 28 |
| June | 40 | 126 |
| July | 3 | 259 |
| August | 7 | 216 |
| September | 93 | 78 |
| October | 389 | 8 |
| November | 689 | 0 |
| December | 989 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 5,892 | 718 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00054788. 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 Meriden been warmer than normal lately?
2023 averaged 53.1°F, 2.4°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 50.7°F. 3 of the 3 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 52.3°F | +1.6°F | – |
| 2022 | 52.0°F | +1.3°F | – |
| 2023 | 53.1°F | +2.4°F | 57.83 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00054788. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Meriden's climate compare?
Meriden is warmer than 6 of the other 12 places with their own NOAA record in Connecticut, and wetter than 4. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 50.7°F is warmer than 44%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Meriden is Dfa: continental, 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 Meriden share this climate record?
13 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.
- Waterbury, CTalso near: Mount Carmel (12 mi, 51.7°F a year); Ansonia (15 mi, 50.1°F a year)115,908 people · 11 mi W
- Middletown, CT48,616 people · 9 mi E
- Wallingford Center, CT18,107 people · 4 mi S
- Kensington, CT9,936 people · 9 mi N
- Oakville, CT9,233 people · 15 mi W
- Cheshire Village, CT6,049 people · 4 mi W
- Portland, CT9,478 people · 12 mi NE
- Lake Pocotopaug, CT4,715 people · 18 mi E
- Watertown, CT22,497 people · 16 mi W
- Durham, CT7,230 people · 8 mi E
- East Hampton, CT13,109 people · 18 mi E
- Plantsville, CT2,045 people · 6 mi NW
- Higganum, CT1,549 people · 14 mi E
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 Meriden's climate
What is the coldest month in Meriden?
January, with a normal high of 37°F and a normal low of 19°F. The warmest is July (84°F by day, 63°F at night).
Does it snow in Meriden?
Yes. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Meriden's NOAA station; the nearest record that keeps one, Burlington (20 miles away), records 39 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Meriden?
October, with 4.49 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 2.93 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Meriden in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Meriden in zone 6b across its 2 ZIP code areas (6b in 06450, the largest). By the same method at Meriden's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −4°F (19 years, 1991-2020): zone 6b.
How late can frost come in Meriden?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 26; in one year in ten it comes after May 9. Waiting until May 9 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Meriden in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Connecticut climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Mount Carmel, CT8 miles from this station, 51.7°F a year
- New Haven, CT17 miles from this station, 52.0°F a year
- Ansonia, CT17 miles from this station, 50.1°F a year
- Burlington, CT21 miles from this station, 50.0°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made