Moses Lake, Washington climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Moses Lake's normal year runs from 24°F December nights to 90°F July afternoons, with 7.8 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.5°C, December lows of −5°C, July highs of 32°C, 198 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationMoses Lake Grant County Airport
- Station IDUSW00024110
- Location47.21°N 119.32°W
- Elevation1,196 ft (365 m)
- Population26,969
On October 14, the normal high in Moses Lake is 64°F and the normal low 37°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 22%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Moses Lake.
- Jan 36° 24°
- Feb 44° 27°
- Mar 55° 32°
- Apr 64° 37°
- May 74° 45°
- Jun 80° 52°
- Jul 90° 57°
- Aug 88° 56°
- Sep 79° 47°
- Oct 63° 37°
- Nov 46° 29°
- Dec 36° 24°
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 Moses Lake each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 90°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 24°F. The most precipitation falls in December (1.11 in), the least in August (0.15 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 | 36°F | 24°F | 30.1°F | 1.02 | 10 | <1 | 27 | 8 h 50 min |
| February | 44°F | 27°F | 35.3°F | 0.65 | 7 | <1 | 23 | 10 h 20 min |
| March | 55°F | 32°F | 43.3°F | 0.73 | 7 | <1 | 17 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 64°F | 37°F | 50.5°F | 0.65 | 6 | <1 | 7 | 13 h 30 min |
| May | 74°F | 45°F | 59.5°F | 0.72 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 15 h |
| June | 80°F | 52°F | 66.2°F | 0.73 | 5 | 5 | <1 | 15 h 50 min |
| July | 90°F | 57°F | 73.4°F | 0.26 | 2 | 18 | <1 | 15 h 40 min |
| August | 88°F | 56°F | 72.2°F | 0.15 | 2 | 15 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| September | 79°F | 47°F | 62.8°F | 0.26 | 3 | 3 | <1 | 12 h 40 min |
| October | 63°F | 37°F | 49.9°F | 0.66 | 7 | <1 | 9 | 11 h |
| November | 46°F | 29°F | 37.6°F | 0.87 | 10 | <1 | 19 | 9 h 20 min |
| December | 36°F | 24°F | 29.9°F | 1.11 | 10 | <1 | 27 | 8 h 30 min |
| Year (annual) | 63°F | 39°F | 50.9°F | 7.81 | 74 | 43 | 129 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2°C | −5°C | −1.1°C | 26 mm |
| February | 7°C | −3°C | 1.8°C | 17 mm |
| March | 13°C | 0°C | 6.3°C | 19 mm |
| April | 18°C | 3°C | 10.3°C | 17 mm |
| May | 23°C | 7°C | 15.3°C | 18 mm |
| June | 27°C | 11°C | 19.0°C | 19 mm |
| July | 32°C | 14°C | 23.0°C | 7 mm |
| August | 31°C | 13°C | 22.3°C | 4 mm |
| September | 26°C | 8°C | 17.1°C | 7 mm |
| October | 17°C | 3°C | 9.9°C | 17 mm |
| November | 8°C | −2°C | 3.1°C | 22 mm |
| December | 2°C | −5°C | −1.2°C | 28 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station, and no record within 25 miles keeps one, so snow is left out here rather than estimated.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00024110; 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 Moses Lake?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June and September. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (3).
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 USW00024110.
When is the last frost in Moses Lake?
In Moses Lake, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 27 in half of years and after May 11 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 8 in half of years and before September 29 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 271 year in 10 after May 11; 9 in 10 after April 10
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 81 year in 10 before September 29; 9 in 10 before October 23
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 165 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 191 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 10 in half of springs and before October 20 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Moses Lake in zone 7a in ZIP code 98837, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Moses Lake's NOAA station is in zone 7a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 0°F (22 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Washington · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00024110; 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.
How hot and how cold does it get in Moses Lake?
In a normal year in Moses Lake, 43 days a year reach 90°F (7 of them 100°F or more), 129 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 74 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 43a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 7a 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
- 74a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1949) is 114°F, on June 29, 2021; the lowest is −22°F, on January 17, 1950.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2006, with 10.72 in; the snowiest season is 1955–56, with 36.2 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00024110; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USW00024110. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Moses Lake?
Over a year 80% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Moses Lake, 4.1 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (92%) and December the cloudiest (53%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 55% | 1.1 |
| February | 69% | 2.3 |
| March | 71% | 3.5 |
| April | 78% | 5.2 |
| May | 80% | 6.4 |
| June | 81% | 7.0 |
| July | 92% | 7.5 |
| August | 91% | 6.3 |
| September | 86% | 4.6 |
| October | 78% | 2.9 |
| November | 64% | 1.5 |
| December | 53% | 0.9 |
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 Moses Lake need?
A normal year in Moses Lake brings 5,791 heating degree days, 8% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 676 cooling degree days, 26% 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 2,772 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,082 | 0 |
| February | 830 | 0 |
| March | 673 | 0 |
| April | 436 | 1 |
| May | 196 | 27 |
| June | 59 | 95 |
| July | 6 | 268 |
| August | 9 | 232 |
| September | 117 | 53 |
| October | 471 | 1 |
| November | 824 | 0 |
| December | 1,090 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 5,791 | 676 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00024110. 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 Moses Lake been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 53.2°F, 2.3°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 50.9°F. 4 of the 4 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 53.6°F | +2.7°F | 4.83 |
| 2023 | 52.1°F | +1.2°F | 8.32 |
| 2024 | 52.5°F | +1.6°F | 7.52 |
| 2025 | 53.2°F | +2.3°F | 5.90 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00024110. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Moses Lake's climate compare?
Moses Lake is warmer than 55 of the other 95 places with their own NOAA record in Washington, and wetter than 5. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 50.9°F is warmer than 44%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Moses Lake is BSk: cold semi-arid steppe. 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 Moses Lake 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.
- Moses Lake North, WA4,693 people · 1 mi S
- Cascade Valley, WA3,824 people · 5 mi S
- Warden, WA2,806 people · 21 mi SE
- Marine View, WA413 people · 17 mi S
- Wheeler, WA223 people · 8 mi SE
- Wilson Creek, WA204 people · 18 mi NE
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 Moses Lake's climate
What is the coldest month in Moses Lake?
December, with a normal high of 36°F and a normal low of 24°F. The warmest is July (90°F by day, 57°F at night).
What is the rainiest month in Moses Lake?
December, with 1.11 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is August with 0.15 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Moses Lake in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Moses Lake in zone 7a in ZIP code 98837, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Moses Lake's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 0°F (22 years, 1991-2020): zone 7a.
How late can frost come in Moses Lake?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 27; in one year in ten it comes after May 11. Waiting until May 11 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Moses Lake in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Washington climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Ephrata, WA12 miles from this station, 51.5°F a year
- Quincy, WA25 miles from this station, 51.1°F a year
- Smyrna, WA30 miles from this station, 53.4°F a year
- Odessa, WA30 miles from this station, 48.8°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made