Portsmouth, Virginia climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Portsmouth's center at January lows of 33°F and July highs of 89°F, a yearly mean of 60.9°F and 48.4 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Norfolk (10 miles E, 30 ft), has January lows of 34°F and July highs of 89°F.
96,482 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 50° 33°
- Feb 53° 34°
- Mar 59° 41°
- Apr 69° 50°
- May 77° 59°
- Jun 84° 67°
- Jul 89° 72°
- Aug 86° 71°
- Sep 81° 66°
- Oct 71° 54°
- Nov 61° 43°
- Dec 54° 37°
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 Portsmouth's center.
What is each month like in Portsmouth?
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. | Norfolk high | Norfolk low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 50°F | 33°F | 41.5°F | 3.48 | 51°F | 34°F |
| February | 53°F | 34°F | 43.5°F | 2.88 | 53°F | 35°F |
| March | 59°F | 41°F | 50.0°F | 3.94 | 60°F | 41°F |
| April | 69°F | 50°F | 59.4°F | 3.42 | 70°F | 50°F |
| May | 77°F | 59°F | 67.7°F | 3.82 | 77°F | 59°F |
| June | 84°F | 67°F | 75.9°F | 4.44 | 85°F | 68°F |
| July | 89°F | 72°F | 80.1°F | 5.52 | 89°F | 73°F |
| August | 86°F | 71°F | 78.5°F | 5.20 | 87°F | 72°F |
| September | 81°F | 66°F | 73.1°F | 5.17 | 81°F | 67°F |
| October | 71°F | 54°F | 62.9°F | 3.99 | 72°F | 55°F |
| November | 61°F | 43°F | 52.3°F | 3.25 | 62°F | 44°F |
| December | 54°F | 37°F | 45.5°F | 3.31 | 55°F | 38°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 16.1°C, January lows of 1°C, July highs of 31°C and 1,230 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 Portsmouth 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NorfolkNorfolk International Airport | 10 mi E | 30 ft | 61.6°F | 34°F | 89°F | 49.2 | 6 | March 17 |
| HamptonLangley Air Force Base | 15 mi N | 10 ft | 59.8°F | 32°F | 87°F | 47.8 | 3 | March 24 |
| SuffolkSuffolk Lake Kilby | 16 mi SW | 22 ft | 59.4°F | 31°F | 87°F | 51.8 | 6 | March 27 |
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 Portsmouth?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Norfolk (10 miles E, 30 ft). It gets 6 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 17 in half of years and the first autumn frost before November 23. Its record high is 105°F (2010) and its record low −3°F (1985), on the National Weather Service's long record for the area (kept since 1874).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Portsmouth in zones 8a to 8b across its 6 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 77% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.3 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); July is the sunniest month (82%) and February the cloudiest (72%).
Norfolk'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 Portsmouth; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00013737; 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 Portsmouth, ZIP code by ZIP code?
6 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Portsmouth. On NOAA's grid 23701 is the warmest (60.9°F a year) and 23703 the coolest (60.8°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23701 | 8a | 60.9°F | 33°F | 89°F | 48.7 | Norfolk (12 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
| 23702 | 8a | 60.9°F | 33°F | 88°F | 48.6 | Norfolk (10 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
| 23703 | 8b | 60.8°F | 33°F | 89°F | 48.1 | Norfolk (10 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
| 23704 | 8b | 60.9°F | 33°F | 88°F | 48.6 | Norfolk (8 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
| 23707 | 8b | 60.9°F | 33°F | 89°F | 48.4 | Norfolk (9 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
| 23709 | 8b | 60.9°F | 33°F | 88°F | 48.6 | Norfolk (8 mi) | March 17 | November 23 |
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.