National City, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put National City's center at January lows of 48°F and July highs of 75°F, a yearly mean of 63.3°F and 9.1 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Chula Vista (2 miles S, 56 ft), has January lows of 47°F and July highs of 75°F.
58,460 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 66° 48°
- Feb 65° 49°
- Mar 67° 52°
- Apr 68° 54°
- May 69° 58°
- Jun 71° 61°
- Jul 75° 65°
- Aug 77° 66°
- Sep 76° 64°
- Oct 74° 59°
- Nov 70° 52°
- Dec 66° 48°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
The months above are NOAA's gridded normals at National City's center.
What is each month like in National City?
NOAA's grid estimates the normals every 5 km or so from the stations around each point, terrain included. It smooths between stations, so night lows at the heart of a large city can run warmer than the grid shows: at five big-city airports we compared, the grid's highs were within about 1°F of the station and its lows 1-6°F cooler. The nearest record's high and low are beside each month.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Chula Vista high | Chula Vista low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66°F | 48°F | 57.1°F | 1.78 | 68°F | 47°F |
| February | 65°F | 49°F | 57.3°F | 2.00 | 67°F | 48°F |
| March | 67°F | 52°F | 59.1°F | 1.53 | 67°F | 51°F |
| April | 68°F | 54°F | 61.1°F | 0.66 | 68°F | 54°F |
| May | 69°F | 58°F | 63.5°F | 0.22 | 69°F | 58°F |
| June | 71°F | 61°F | 66.2°F | 0.05 | 71°F | 61°F |
| July | 75°F | 65°F | 69.5°F | 0.02 | 75°F | 65°F |
| August | 77°F | 66°F | 71.3°F | 0.02 | 77°F | 66°F |
| September | 76°F | 64°F | 70.1°F | 0.10 | 77°F | 64°F |
| October | 74°F | 59°F | 66.4°F | 0.36 | 75°F | 59°F |
| November | 70°F | 52°F | 61.3°F | 0.80 | 71°F | 51°F |
| December | 66°F | 48°F | 56.7°F | 1.59 | 67°F | 46°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.4°C, January lows of 9°C, July highs of 24°C and 231 mm of precipitation a year.
Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Monthly Gridded Climate Normals 1991-2020 (nClimGrid, accession 0245564); NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 station normals. The grid cell holding the city's Census center point.
What do the station records around National City say?
Each row is a NOAA station's own 1991-2020 normals, with the snow and frost dates the grid does not give. A record downhill or nearer the coast than the city can run warmer, one uphill cooler: compare the elevations.
| Record | Where | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chula Vista | 2 mi S | 56 ft | 63.3°F | 47°F | 75°F | 9.2 | 0 | – |
| North Island Naval Air Station | 6 mi W | 26 ft | 63.9°F | 49°F | 74°F | 9.3 | 0 | – |
| San DiegoSan Diego Lindbergh Field | 7 mi NW | 15 ft | 64.7°F | 50°F | 75°F | 9.8 | – | – |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals; place center and population: Census Bureau 2024. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
How much snow, how late a frost, what zone and how much sun in National City?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Chula Vista (2 miles S, 56 ft). It gets 0 inches of snow in a normal year. Frost is rare there: NOAA gives no median frost date. Its record high is 106°F (1987) and its record low 26°F (1949) (kept since 1918).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts National City in zone 10b across its 2 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 79% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.9 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); November is the sunniest month (83%) and June the cloudiest (69%).
Chula Vista's page has its months, frost probabilities, records by month and recent years. NOAA's grid has monthly figures only, so there are no day-by-day month pages for National City; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00041758; records: ACIS; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; sunshine: NASA POWER.
How does the climate vary across National City, ZIP code by ZIP code?
2 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in National City. On NOAA's grid 91950 is the warmest (63.4°F a year) and 92136 the coolest (63.4°F), so the city is nearly uniform. Each row also names the nearest station record and its frost dates.
| ZIP code | Zone | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Nearest record | Last frost | First frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 91950 | 10b | 63.4°F | 48°F | 75°F | 9.1 | Chula Vista (2 mi) | – | – |
| 92136 | 10b | 63.4°F | 48°F | 75°F | 9.1 | Chula Vista (4 mi) | – | – |
Source: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file and ZCTA centers; NOAA NCEI gridded and station normals, 1991-2020. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) is in the city; its figures are the grid cell at its center; frost dates are the nearest record's medians of 32°F.