Novato, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Novato's center at January lows of 41°F and July highs of 76°F, a yearly mean of 57.3°F and 29.3 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, San Rafael (6 miles S, 120 ft), has January lows of 43°F and July highs of 81°F.
52,311 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 57° 41°
- Feb 60° 43°
- Mar 63° 43°
- Apr 66° 45°
- May 69° 48°
- Jun 75° 51°
- Jul 76° 52°
- Aug 77° 53°
- Sep 77° 52°
- Oct 73° 49°
- Nov 64° 44°
- Dec 57° 41°
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 Novato's center.
What is each month like in Novato?
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. | San Rafael high | San Rafael low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 57°F | 41°F | 48.8°F | 5.76 | 57°F | 43°F |
| February | 60°F | 43°F | 51.5°F | 5.72 | 61°F | 44°F |
| March | 63°F | 43°F | 53.3°F | 4.07 | 65°F | 46°F |
| April | 66°F | 45°F | 55.2°F | 1.83 | 68°F | 48°F |
| May | 69°F | 48°F | 58.5°F | 0.86 | 72°F | 51°F |
| June | 75°F | 51°F | 62.7°F | 0.22 | 78°F | 54°F |
| July | 76°F | 52°F | 64.0°F | 0.00 | 81°F | 55°F |
| August | 77°F | 53°F | 64.9°F | 0.04 | 81°F | 56°F |
| September | 77°F | 52°F | 64.5°F | 0.09 | 81°F | 54°F |
| October | 73°F | 49°F | 61.0°F | 1.45 | 75°F | 51°F |
| November | 64°F | 44°F | 54.0°F | 3.14 | 65°F | 46°F |
| December | 57°F | 41°F | 48.8°F | 6.12 | 57°F | 42°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 14.1°C, January lows of 5°C, July highs of 24°C and 744 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 Novato 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San RafaelSan Rafael Civic Center | 6 mi S | 120 ft | 59.5°F | 43°F | 81°F | 34.5 | 0 | January 11 |
| Kentfield | 9 mi S | 145 ft | 59.2°F | 42°F | 83°F | 44.4 | 0 | January 16 |
| PetalumaPetaluma Airport | 12 mi N | 20 ft | 58.0°F | 39°F | 81°F | 25.6 | 0 | February 28 |
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 Novato?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, San Rafael (6 miles S, 120 ft). It gets 0 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after January 11 in half of years and the first autumn frost before December 21. Its record high is 110°F (1961) and its record low 20°F (1990) (kept since 1894).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Novato in zone 9b across its 3 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 80% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.7 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); June is the sunniest month (84%) and December the cloudiest (74%).
San Rafael'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 Novato; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00047880; 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 Novato, ZIP code by ZIP code?
3 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Novato. On NOAA's grid 94949 is the warmest (57.5°F a year) and 94947 the coolest (57.2°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 94945 | 9b | 57.3°F | 41°F | 76°F | 29.3 | San Rafael (9 mi) | January 11 | December 21 |
| 94947 | 9b | 57.2°F | 40°F | 78°F | 31.8 | San Rafael (9 mi) | January 11 | December 21 |
| 94949 | 9b | 57.5°F | 44°F | 72°F | 29.1 | San Rafael (5 mi) | January 11 | December 21 |
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.