Palm Springs, California climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Palm Springs's normal year runs from 46°F December nights to 109°F July afternoons, with 4.6 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 24.2°C, December lows of 8°C, July highs of 43°C, 117 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationPalm Springs Asos
- Station IDUSW00093138
- Location33.83°N 116.51°W
- Elevation421 ft (128 m)
- Population45,453
On October 23, the normal high in Palm Springs is 89°F and the normal low 62°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 3%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Palm Springs.
- Jan 71° 48°
- Feb 74° 50°
- Mar 81° 54°
- Apr 87° 59°
- May 95° 66°
- Jun 104° 73°
- Jul 109° 79°
- Aug 108° 80°
- Sep 102° 74°
- Oct 91° 65°
- Nov 79° 53°
- Dec 69° 46°
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 Palm Springs each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 109°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 46°F. The most precipitation falls in January (1.14 in), the least in June (0.00 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 | 71°F | 48°F | 59.0°F | 1.14 | 3 | <1 | <1 | 10 h 10 min |
| February | 74°F | 50°F | 61.7°F | 1.11 | 3 | <1 | <1 | 11 h |
| March | 81°F | 54°F | 67.5°F | 0.51 | 2 | 5 | <1 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 87°F | 59°F | 72.9°F | 0.09 | 1 | 11 | <1 | 13 h |
| May | 95°F | 66°F | 80.3°F | 0.02 | 1 | 22 | <1 | 13 h 50 min |
| June | 104°F | 73°F | 88.2°F | 0.00 | <1 | 29 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| July | 109°F | 79°F | 94.0°F | 0.25 | 1 | 31 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| August | 108°F | 80°F | 94.0°F | 0.14 | 1 | 31 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 102°F | 74°F | 88.1°F | 0.24 | 1 | 28 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 91°F | 65°F | 77.8°F | 0.20 | 1 | 18 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 79°F | 53°F | 66.0°F | 0.23 | 1 | 3 | <1 | 10 h 30 min |
| December | 69°F | 46°F | 57.7°F | 0.68 | 3 | <1 | <1 | 10 h |
| Year (annual) | 89°F | 62°F | 75.6°F | 4.61 | 17 | 177 | <1 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 21°C | 9°C | 15.0°C | 29 mm |
| February | 23°C | 10°C | 16.5°C | 28 mm |
| March | 27°C | 12°C | 19.7°C | 13 mm |
| April | 30°C | 15°C | 22.7°C | 2 mm |
| May | 35°C | 19°C | 26.8°C | 1 mm |
| June | 40°C | 23°C | 31.2°C | 0 mm |
| July | 43°C | 26°C | 34.4°C | 6 mm |
| August | 42°C | 27°C | 34.4°C | 4 mm |
| September | 39°C | 24°C | 31.2°C | 6 mm |
| October | 33°C | 18°C | 25.4°C | 5 mm |
| November | 26°C | 12°C | 18.9°C | 6 mm |
| December | 21°C | 8°C | 14.3°C | 17 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00093138; 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 Palm Springs?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in January, February, March, November and December. Of those, November has the fewest days with rain (1).
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 USW00093138.
When is the last frost in Palm Springs?
A night at 32°F or colder comes in only 11% of years in Palm Springs (NOAA). NOAA's median date of the last spring frost is January 9 and of the first autumn frost January 9.
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 Palm Springs in zones 9b to 10a across its 4 ZIP code areas (10a in 92264, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Palm Springs's NOAA station is in zone 10a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 34°F (21 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in California · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00093138; 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.
What hardiness zone is each Palm Springs ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Palm Springs's 4 ZIP code areas run from zone 9b to 10a: 3 in 10a and 1 in 9b. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.
Source: USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; ZIP areas in the place: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) lies in the place.
How hot and how cold does it get in Palm Springs?
In a normal year in Palm Springs, 177 days a year reach 90°F (115 of them 100°F or more), nights almost never fall to freezing and 17 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 177a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 115a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 17a normal year
The highest temperature in Palm Springs's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1922) is 124°F, on July 5, 2024; the lowest is 19°F, on January 22, 1937.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1927, with 14.78 in; the snowiest season is 1929–30, with 2.0 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00093138; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), NWS threaded record PSPthr. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Palm Springs?
Over a year 91% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Palm Springs, 5.8 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (96%) and February the cloudiest (84%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 85% | 3.4 |
| February | 84% | 4.3 |
| March | 88% | 5.7 |
| April | 90% | 7.0 |
| May | 93% | 7.9 |
| June | 96% | 8.4 |
| July | 93% | 7.8 |
| August | 94% | 7.3 |
| September | 94% | 6.3 |
| October | 92% | 5.0 |
| November | 89% | 3.7 |
| December | 85% | 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 Palm Springs need?
A normal year in Palm Springs brings 703 heating degree days, 87% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 4,601 cooling degree days, 5.1 times the median (908). No month reaches 300 heating degree days. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 9,384 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 197 | 13 |
| February | 130 | 38 |
| March | 55 | 132 |
| April | 14 | 251 |
| May | 1 | 476 |
| June | 0 | 694 |
| July | 0 | 899 |
| August | 0 | 897 |
| September | 0 | 693 |
| October | 2 | 399 |
| November | 71 | 102 |
| December | 233 | 7 |
| Year (annual) | 703 | 4,601 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00093138. 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 Palm Springs been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 77.3°F, 1.7°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 75.6°F. 4 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 77.4°F | +1.8°F | 2.57 |
| 2022 | 77.3°F | +1.7°F | 1.18 |
| 2023 | 74.9°F | −0.7°F | 7.11 |
| 2024 | 77.4°F | +1.8°F | 2.70 |
| 2025 | 77.3°F | +1.7°F | 5.21 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00093138. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Palm Springs's climate compare?
Palm Springs is warmer than 216 of the other 218 places with their own NOAA record in California, and wetter than 13. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 75.6°F is warmer than 99%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Palm Springs 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 Palm Springs 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.
- Cathedral City, CAalso near: Idyllwild Fire Dept (15 mi, 54.5°F a year); Indio (17 mi, 75.9°F a year)52,517 people · 2 mi E
- Rancho Mirage, CA18,001 people · 6 mi SE
- Thousand Palms, CA7,662 people · 9 mi E
- Garnet, CA6,979 people · 6 mi N
- Desert Edge, CA3,642 people · 8 mi NE
- Sky Valley, CA2,437 people · 10 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.
What do Palm Springs's other NOAA stations record?
One more NOAA station keeps 1991-2020 normals in or near Palm Springs. This page uses Palm Springs Asos; the other differs by site and elevation:
| Station | From this station | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Palm Springs station USC00046635 | in town | 425 ft | 75.1°F | 47°F | 108°F | 5.1 | 0 | January 1 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for each station. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
Questions about Palm Springs's climate
What is the coldest month in Palm Springs?
December, with a normal high of 69°F and a normal low of 46°F. The warmest is July (109°F by day, 79°F at night).
Does it snow in Palm Springs?
Rarely. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Palm Springs's NOAA station; Palm Springs's own co-op station Palm Springs station records 0 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Palm Springs?
January, with 1.14 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is June with 0.00 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Palm Springs in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Palm Springs in zones 9b to 10a across its 4 ZIP code areas (10a in 92264, the largest). By the same method at Palm Springs's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 34°F (21 years, 1991-2020): zone 10a.
Nearby and next
- Palm Springs in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- California climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Idyllwild Fire Dept, CA12 miles from this station, 54.5°F a year
- Morongo Valley, CA18 miles from this station, 64.5°F a year
- Indio, CA19 miles from this station, 75.9°F a year
- Yucca Valley, CA22 miles from this station, 62.9°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made