Palmdale, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Pulled from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →: climate measurements used in PlainClimate's documented score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Palmdale's primary NOAA station, PALMDALE AP - 2 stations mapped to the area.
The climate verdict for Palmdale
Dryness leads the climate profile for Palmdale, California, with 5.9 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 63°F. Its climate comfort score of 73/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 66% of station-mapped location scores.
- 63°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 73/100
- comfort score, above 66% of station-mapped location scores
- 5.9"
- precipitation, annual total
- 242 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Palmdale: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00023182 · Palmdale, CA 63°F mean · 5.9" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-MID · LOAD-MIX · STN-MULTI · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 63°F
- RANK-UPPER #5,626
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Alpine
- PRCP-ARID 5.9"
- SWING-MID 38°F
- COMF-MID 73/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-MULTI USW00023182
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Alpine, CA (+ 0 °F mean)
Instrument codes from this station's NOAA 1991–2020 normals, mean temperature, corpus warmth rank, photo-finish peer station, precipitation band, seasonal swing, comfort composite, degree-day load, and field book, not a livability rating.
Mean-temperature neighbourhood
Nationwide NOAA normal poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every CA station list.
- Palmdale (this station) 63°F
- Hot Bishopville, SC 63°F
- Near Alpine, CA 63°F
- Near Athens, AL 63°F
- Near Benton, AR 63°F
Climate Living Index · Palmdale
Palmdale: 60/100 · grade C
Palmdale publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Palmdale, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 73/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 242 days/year | 86/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 62.6°F · 4.9° from 67.5°F | 85/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 131 calendar days | 58/100 · C |
| Precipitation balance | 5.9 in · 29.1 from 35 in | 3/100 · F |
Palmdale · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Palmdale's normals sit in a dry climate class: BWk
Annual precipitation falls well below the aridity threshold for this temperature regime, so the normals classify as cold desert (BWk). Class BWk is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically cold desert.
- Köppen code
- BWk
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 82.5°F
- Coldest month
- 44.7°F
Source: official public datasets monthly normals (1991–2020) at the city’s primary station. This is a station classification, not a mapped regional consensus.
National standing · balanced station
Where Palmdale sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Palmdale's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 18% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Palmdale sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 99%
- Palmdale's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 74%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Palmdale is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Palmdale compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Palmdale's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
73 Top 34% score exceeds 66% of 6,189 station-mapped location scores
- 0–10: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 10–20: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 20–30: 96 station-mapped locations (2%). Below this entry.
- 30–40: 280 station-mapped locations (5%). Below this entry.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). Below this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Below this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). This entry sits in this band.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Above this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Palmdale's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 60 complete annual observations from 1934 to 2025, PALMDALE AP warmed at a fitted rate of 0.12°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Palmdale primary station fitted change +0.12 °C/decade
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59°F (15°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 1.0" | N/A | 15.7 | 0.0 |
| February | 62°F (17°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.5" | N/A | 9.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 68°F (20°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 0.9" | N/A | 3.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 73°F (23°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.3" | N/A | 0.9 | 1.3 |
| May | 82°F (28°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 67°F (20°C) | 0.1" | N/A | 0.0 | 8.4 |
| June | 91°F (33°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 0.0" | N/A | 0.0 | 20.3 |
| July | 98°F (36°C) | 67°F (20°C) | 83°F (28°C) | 0.1" | N/A | 0.0 | 29.2 |
| August | 98°F (37°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 82°F (28°C) | 0.0" | N/A | 0.0 | 29.3 |
| September | 92°F (33°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 0.2" | N/A | 0.0 | 20.6 |
| October | 80°F (27°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.5" | N/A | 0.2 | 4.1 |
| November | 67°F (20°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 0.4" | N/A | 6.8 | 0.0 |
| December | 58°F (14°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 1.0" | N/A | 17.5 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Palmdale works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 99°F by July 27 and hold at or above 90°F on 100 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 31 dates, bottoming at 31°F around December 15.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 13 through September 20, covering 100 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 30 to November 9.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into January 6, then returns to freezing around December 7, covering 31 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 20, when 19% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 14 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 27 wet dates a year.
The widest day
September 4 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 33°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Palmdale.
Where Palmdale Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 100 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 6 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Palmdale earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
4.4 days with precipitation
5.2 days with precipitation
3.7 days with precipitation
2.2 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
0.3 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
0.7 days with precipitation
1.3 days with precipitation
2.3 days with precipitation
4.3 days with precipitation
Palmdale's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 59% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 3%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 37.8°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 1.5"
- Driest month
- June, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, December, January (59% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
How Palmdale's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 27 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 5.9" between them, or roughly 0.22 inches on a typical wet day. That sits in the middle band: neither the many-light-days pattern of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes, nor the few-heavy-events pattern of the Gulf and the desert Southwest.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year and say nothing about the heaviest single storm on record.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
November 15
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
March 18
50% probability date
Growing Season
242 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,778
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,944
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Palmdale on two NOAA annual-normal axes (mean temperature and annual precipitation). Chip rows use distinct link sets.
Closest by average temperature
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual mean temperature (63°F here).
- Athens, AL 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Benton, AR 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Bishopville, SC 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Magnolia, AR 63°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (5.9" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Topaz Lake, NV 5.9" · 0.0" off
- Bunkerville, NV 5.9" · 0.0" off
- Fort Duchesne, UT 6.0" · 0.1" off
- Lovelock, NV 6.1" · 0.2" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Palmdale's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · mid swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 5.9 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Palmdale's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 37.8°F. The annual average is 63°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Heating and cooling both register in Palmdale's normal, at 2,778 and 1,944 degree days respectively. Neither total exceeds the other by more than two to one, so the record is better read as a mixed-demand calendar than as heating-led or cooling-led.
Palmdale has a long frost-free window of roughly 242 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
Palmdale wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (5.9 inches).
Palmdale driest normal
June
June is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Palmdale's climate
How dry is Palmdale? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Palmdale get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Palmdale? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Palmdale's primary station: PALMDALE AP (USW00023182). 2 NOAA stations are mapped to the Palmdale area; the primary station's record is used for consistency. For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The 2024 Census Gazetteer identifies the exact name-and-state match as an incorporated place (GEOID 0655156). Match rule for Palmdale: exact normalized name + state only, no fuzzy expansion, so nearby differently spelled facilities stay unmatched.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Palmdale comes from its primary NOAA station record. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor - each value is rendered from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 1991–2020 normals.