Orange, California climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Orange's center at January lows of 47°F and July highs of 85°F, a yearly mean of 65.8°F and 12.4 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Santa Ana Fire Station (3 miles S, 135 ft), has January lows of 49°F and July highs of 83°F.
137,941 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 70° 47°
- Feb 70° 48°
- Mar 71° 50°
- Apr 74° 52°
- May 76° 57°
- Jun 80° 60°
- Jul 85° 64°
- Aug 87° 64°
- Sep 86° 62°
- Oct 81° 57°
- Nov 75° 51°
- Dec 69° 46°
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 Orange's center.
What is each month like in Orange?
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. | Santa Ana Fire Station high | Santa Ana Fire Station low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70°F | 47°F | 58.3°F | 2.85 | 69°F | 49°F |
| February | 70°F | 48°F | 58.7°F | 3.13 | 69°F | 50°F |
| March | 71°F | 50°F | 60.5°F | 1.75 | 71°F | 52°F |
| April | 74°F | 52°F | 63.1°F | 0.72 | 73°F | 54°F |
| May | 76°F | 57°F | 66.2°F | 0.26 | 75°F | 58°F |
| June | 80°F | 60°F | 69.7°F | 0.05 | 78°F | 61°F |
| July | 85°F | 64°F | 74.1°F | 0.03 | 83°F | 65°F |
| August | 87°F | 64°F | 75.4°F | 0.01 | 85°F | 65°F |
| September | 86°F | 62°F | 74.0°F | 0.12 | 84°F | 64°F |
| October | 81°F | 57°F | 69.0°F | 0.48 | 79°F | 59°F |
| November | 75°F | 51°F | 62.8°F | 0.84 | 74°F | 53°F |
| December | 69°F | 46°F | 57.4°F | 2.19 | 68°F | 48°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 18.8°C, January lows of 8°C, July highs of 29°C and 316 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 Orange 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Santa Ana Fire Station | 3 mi S | 135 ft | 66.1°F | 49°F | 83°F | 12.5 | 0 | – |
| Anaheim | 5 mi N | 235 ft | 67.7°F | 49°F | 87°F | 13.5 | 0 | – |
| Santa AnaSanta Ana John Wayne Airport | 7 mi S | 54 ft | 64.9°F | 49°F | 79°F | 11.2 | – | – |
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 Orange?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Santa Ana Fire Station (3 miles S, 135 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 114°F (2018) and its record low 16°F (1989) (kept since 1916).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Orange in zone 10b across its 5 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 87% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (5.4 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); August is the sunniest month (92%) and February the cloudiest (83%).
Santa Ana Fire Station'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 Orange; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00047888; 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 Orange, ZIP code by ZIP code?
5 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Orange. On NOAA's grid 92865 is the warmest (65.9°F a year) and 92869 the coolest (65.5°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 92865 | 10b | 65.9°F | 47°F | 86°F | 12.3 | Anaheim (3 mi) | – | – |
| 92866 | 10b | 65.8°F | 47°F | 85°F | 12.4 | Santa Ana Fire Station (3 mi) | – | – |
| 92867 | 10b | 65.7°F | 47°F | 87°F | 12.7 | Anaheim (4 mi) | – | – |
| 92868 | 10b | 65.7°F | 47°F | 84°F | 12.4 | Santa Ana Fire Station (3 mi) | – | – |
| 92869 | 10b | 65.5°F | 47°F | 87°F | 13.3 | Irvine (6 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.