Needles, California climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Needles's normal year runs from 45°F December nights to 111°F July afternoons, with 4.3 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 24.6°C, December lows of 7°C, July highs of 44°C, 110 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationNeedles Airport
- Station IDUSW00023179
- Location34.77°N 114.62°W
- Elevation890 ft (271 m)
- Population4,839
On October 23, the normal high in Needles is 86°F and the normal low 62°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 4%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Needles.
- Jan 66° 46°
- Feb 71° 49°
- Mar 79° 54°
- Apr 87° 61°
- May 96° 70°
- Jun 106° 80°
- Jul 111° 87°
- Aug 109° 85°
- Sep 103° 77°
- Oct 90° 65°
- Nov 75° 53°
- Dec 65° 45°
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 Needles each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 111°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 45°F. The most precipitation falls in February (0.79 in), the least in June (0.04 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66°F | 46°F | 56.2°F | 0.73 | 3 | <1 | 1 | 10 h |
| February | 71°F | 49°F | 59.9°F | 0.79 | 4 | <1 | <1 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 79°F | 54°F | 66.6°F | 0.51 | 3 | 3 | <1 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 87°F | 61°F | 73.7°F | 0.18 | 1 | 11 | <1 | 13 h |
| May | 96°F | 70°F | 83.1°F | 0.07 | 1 | 25 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 106°F | 80°F | 93.0°F | 0.04 | <1 | 30 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| July | 111°F | 87°F | 98.5°F | 0.27 | 2 | 31 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| August | 109°F | 85°F | 97.4°F | 0.39 | 2 | 31 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 103°F | 77°F | 90.0°F | 0.34 | 2 | 29 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 90°F | 65°F | 77.0°F | 0.22 | 2 | 17 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 75°F | 53°F | 63.8°F | 0.34 | 2 | 1 | <1 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 65°F | 45°F | 54.7°F | 0.44 | 2 | <1 | 1 | 9 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 88°F | 64°F | 76.2°F | 4.32 | 23 | 177 | 2 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 19°C | 8°C | 13.4°C | 19 mm |
| February | 22°C | 9°C | 15.5°C | 20 mm |
| March | 26°C | 12°C | 19.2°C | 13 mm |
| April | 30°C | 16°C | 23.2°C | 5 mm |
| May | 36°C | 21°C | 28.4°C | 2 mm |
| June | 41°C | 26°C | 33.9°C | 1 mm |
| July | 44°C | 30°C | 36.9°C | 7 mm |
| August | 43°C | 30°C | 36.3°C | 10 mm |
| September | 39°C | 25°C | 32.2°C | 9 mm |
| October | 32°C | 18°C | 25.0°C | 6 mm |
| November | 24°C | 11°C | 17.7°C | 9 mm |
| December | 18°C | 7°C | 12.6°C | 11 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00023179; 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 Needles?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in January, February, March and November. Of those, November has the fewest days with rain (2).
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 USW00023179.
When is the last frost in Needles?
A night at 32°F or colder comes in only 37% of years in Needles (NOAA). NOAA's median date of the last spring frost is January 6 and of the first autumn frost January 2.
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 365 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 365 days.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Needles in zone 9b in ZIP code 86440, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Needles's NOAA station is in zone 10a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 32°F (30 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in California · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00023179; 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 Needles?
In a normal year in Needles, 177 days a year reach 90°F (122 of them 100°F or more), 2 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 23 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 177a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 122a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 2a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 23a normal year
The highest temperature in Needles's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1888) is 125°F, on June 20, 2016; the lowest is 18°F, on January 22, 1937.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1905, with 11.36 in; the snowiest season is 1948–49, with 15.2 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00023179; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), NWS threaded record EEDthr. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Needles?
Over a year 93% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Needles, 5.8 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (97%) and December the cloudiest (86%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 87% | 3.4 |
| February | 88% | 4.4 |
| March | 91% | 5.8 |
| April | 93% | 7.2 |
| May | 95% | 8.1 |
| June | 97% | 8.6 |
| July | 93% | 7.7 |
| August | 94% | 7.2 |
| September | 95% | 6.3 |
| October | 94% | 4.9 |
| November | 91% | 3.7 |
| December | 86% | 3.0 |
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 Needles need?
A normal year in Needles brings 941 heating degree days, 82% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 5,049 cooling degree days, 5.6 times the median (908). One month needs 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 9,615 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 275 | 2 |
| February | 161 | 18 |
| March | 62 | 112 |
| April | 12 | 273 |
| May | 1 | 562 |
| June | 0 | 840 |
| July | 0 | 1,040 |
| August | 0 | 1,003 |
| September | 0 | 749 |
| October | 5 | 379 |
| November | 105 | 70 |
| December | 319 | 2 |
| Year (annual) | 941 | 5,049 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00023179. 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 Needles been warmer than normal lately?
2024 averaged 76.7°F, 0.5°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 76.2°F. 1 of the 3 complete years since 2022 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 75.8°F | −0.4°F | 2.80 |
| 2023 | 74.2°F | −2.0°F | 5.03 |
| 2024 | 76.7°F | +0.5°F | 2.46 |
Over 104 complete years from 1893 to 2024, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 3.0°F per century (+0.17°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00023179; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Needles's climate compare?
Needles is warmer than 218 of the other 218 places with their own NOAA record in California, and wetter than 10. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 76.2°F is warmer than 99%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Needles is BWh: hot desert. 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 Needles share this climate record?
7 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.
- Mohave Valley, AZ2,585 people · 10 mi N
- Golden Shores, AZ1,319 people · 8 mi E
- Willow Valley, AZ817 people · 11 mi N
- Arizona Village, AZ675 people · 6 mi N
- Mesquite Creek, AZ484 people · 14 mi N
- Mojave Ranch Estates, AZ39 people · 12 mi N
- Topock, AZ0 people · 9 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 Needles's climate
What is the coldest month in Needles?
December, with a normal high of 65°F and a normal low of 45°F. The warmest is July (111°F by day, 87°F at night).
Does it snow in Needles?
Rarely: NOAA's normal is no measurable snow a year.
What is the rainiest month in Needles?
February, with 0.79 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is June with 0.04 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Needles in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Needles in zone 9b in ZIP code 86440, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Needles's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 32°F (30 years, 1991-2020): zone 10a.
Nearby and next
- California climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Lake Havasu City, AZ24 miles from this station, 74.2°F a year
- Bullhead City, AZ26 miles from this station, 74.2°F a year
- Laughlin, NV28 miles from this station, 74.1°F a year
- Yucca, AZ29 miles from this station, 68.4°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made