Raleigh, North Carolina climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Raleigh's normal year runs from 32°F January nights to 91°F July afternoons, with 46.1 inches of precipitation and 5 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 16.2°C, January lows of 0°C, July highs of 33°C, 1,170 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationRaleigh-Durham International Airport
- Station IDUSW00013722
- Location35.89°N 78.78°W
- Elevation416 ft (127 m)
- From the center9 miles
- Population499,825
On October 23, the normal high in Raleigh is 71°F and the normal low 47°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 26%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Raleigh.
- Jan 52° 32°
- Feb 56° 34°
- Mar 63° 40°
- Apr 73° 49°
- May 80° 58°
- Jun 87° 66°
- Jul 91° 70°
- Aug 89° 69°
- Sep 83° 63°
- Oct 73° 50°
- Nov 63° 40°
- Dec 55° 34°
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 Raleigh each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 91°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 32°F. The most precipitation falls in September (5.15 in), the least in February (2.78 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. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52°F | 32°F | 41.9°F | 3.43 | 2.6 | 10 | <1 | 18 | 10 h |
| February | 56°F | 34°F | 45.0°F | 2.78 | 1.4 | 9 | <1 | 14 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 63°F | 40°F | 51.8°F | 4.10 | 0.3 | 11 | <1 | 8 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 73°F | 49°F | 60.8°F | 3.53 | 0.0 | 10 | <1 | 1 | 13 h |
| May | 80°F | 58°F | 68.8°F | 3.38 | 0.0 | 10 | 3 | <1 | 14 h |
| June | 87°F | 66°F | 76.7°F | 3.89 | 0.0 | 11 | 12 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| July | 91°F | 70°F | 80.5°F | 5.02 | 0.0 | 12 | 19 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| August | 89°F | 69°F | 78.8°F | 4.71 | 0.0 | 11 | 14 | <1 | 13 h 30 min |
| September | 83°F | 63°F | 72.6°F | 5.15 | 0.0 | 9 | 5 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 73°F | 50°F | 61.7°F | 3.37 | 0.0 | 8 | <1 | 1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 63°F | 40°F | 51.5°F | 3.32 | 0.1 | 8 | <1 | 8 | 10 h 20 min |
| December | 55°F | 34°F | 44.6°F | 3.39 | 0.8 | 10 | <1 | 15 | 9 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 72°F | 51°F | 61.2°F | 46.07 | 5.2 | 118 | 52 | 65 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 11°C | 0°C | 5.5°C | 87 mm | 7 cm |
| February | 13°C | 1°C | 7.2°C | 71 mm | 4 cm |
| March | 17°C | 5°C | 11.0°C | 104 mm | 1 cm |
| April | 23°C | 9°C | 16.0°C | 90 mm | 0 cm |
| May | 27°C | 14°C | 20.4°C | 86 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 31°C | 19°C | 24.8°C | 99 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 33°C | 21°C | 26.9°C | 128 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 32°C | 21°C | 26.0°C | 120 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 28°C | 17°C | 22.6°C | 131 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 23°C | 10°C | 16.5°C | 86 mm | 0 cm |
| November | 17°C | 4°C | 10.8°C | 84 mm | 0 cm |
| December | 13°C | 1°C | 7.0°C | 86 mm | 2 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00013722; 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 Raleigh?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, September and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (8).
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 USW00013722.
When is the last frost in Raleigh?
In Raleigh, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after March 31 in half of years and after April 16 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before November 4 in half of years and before October 23 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- March 311 year in 10 after April 16; 9 in 10 after March 15
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- November 41 year in 10 before October 23; 9 in 10 before November 17
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 219 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 245 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after March 18 in half of springs and before November 16 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Raleigh in zone 8a across its 16 ZIP code areas (8a in 27610, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Raleigh's NOAA station is in zone 8a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 12°F (30 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in North Carolina · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00013722; 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 Raleigh ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Raleigh's 16 ZIP code areas are all in zone 8a. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.
| ZIP code | Zone | Land in Raleigh |
|---|---|---|
| 27601 | 8a | 4.7 km² |
| 27603 | 8a | 18.5 km² |
| 27604 | 8a | 30.9 km² |
| 27605 | 8a | 2.6 km² |
| 27606 | 8a | 25.1 km² |
| 27607 | 8a | 36.5 km² |
| 27608 | 8a | 8.9 km² |
| 27609 | 8a | 28.0 km² |
| 27610 | 8a | 57.2 km² |
| 27612 | 8a | 39.0 km² |
| 27613 | 8a | 17.7 km² |
| 27614 | 8a | 18.0 km² |
| 27615 | 8a | 31.2 km² |
| 27616 | 8a | 34.7 km² |
| 27617 | 8a | 19.8 km² |
| 27695 | 8a | 0.7 km² |
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 Raleigh?
In a normal year in Raleigh, 52 days a year reach 90°F (2 of them 100°F or more), 65 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 118 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 52a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 2a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 65a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 2high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 118a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 2a normal year
The highest temperature in Raleigh's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1887) is 106°F, on July 5, 2024; the lowest is −9°F, on January 21, 1985.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1936, with 64.22 in; the snowiest season is 1892–93, with 31.6 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00013722; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), NWS threaded record RDUthr. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How humid and windy is Raleigh, and how clear are its skies?
The summer (June-August) dew point averages 67°F. The muggiest month is July, with an average dew point of 69°F, above the 65°F at which most people call the air sticky; the driest air comes in January (28°F). March is the windiest month (7.7 mph on average), and October has the most clear or nearly clear hours (48%).
| Month | Dew point | Humidity | Afternoon humidity | Wind | Clear or few clouds | Overcast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28°F | 60% | 41% | 6.6 mph | 39% | 30% |
| February | 33°F | 59% | 42% | 7.3 mph | 38% | 32% |
| March | 41°F | 59% | 40% | 7.7 mph | 38% | 28% |
| April | 51°F | 66% | 46% | 7.4 mph | 35% | 25% |
| May | 62°F | 70% | 50% | 6.2 mph | 29% | 23% |
| June | 67°F | 71% | 50% | 5.9 mph | 32% | 19% |
| July | 69°F | 74% | 54% | 5.4 mph | 31% | 22% |
| August | 66°F | 74% | 54% | 5.6 mph | 34% | 21% |
| September | 58°F | 75% | 53% | 5.6 mph | 43% | 23% |
| October | 46°F | 71% | 47% | 5.2 mph | 48% | 25% |
| November | 37°F | 66% | 45% | 5.6 mph | 45% | 25% |
| December | 32°F | 66% | 48% | 6.0 mph | 38% | 32% |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 hourly normals, station USW00013722. Monthly averages of all hours; afternoon humidity at 3 p.m. local standard time; sky as the share of hours NOAA's observations rate clear or few clouds (a dash where NOAA publishes no sky value).
How sunny is Raleigh?
Over a year 78% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Raleigh, 4.5 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (82%) and February the cloudiest (73%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 210th (with 32 others) in sunshine.
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 75% | 2.6 |
| February | 73% | 3.3 |
| March | 74% | 4.3 |
| April | 78% | 5.5 |
| May | 78% | 6.1 |
| June | 81% | 6.4 |
| July | 82% | 6.2 |
| August | 80% | 5.5 |
| September | 78% | 4.7 |
| October | 77% | 3.7 |
| November | 78% | 2.9 |
| December | 74% | 2.3 |
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 Raleigh need?
A normal year in Raleigh brings 3,153 heating degree days, 41% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,805 cooling degree days, 99% more than the median (908). Five months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 5,037 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 718 | 1 |
| February | 562 | 2 |
| March | 421 | 12 |
| April | 180 | 54 |
| May | 47 | 166 |
| June | 3 | 354 |
| July | 0 | 480 |
| August | 0 | 428 |
| September | 15 | 243 |
| October | 160 | 56 |
| November | 412 | 7 |
| December | 636 | 3 |
| Year (annual) | 3,153 | 1,805 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00013722. 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 Raleigh been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 62.6°F, 1.4°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 61.2°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 61.8°F | +0.6°F | 45.25 | 1.6 |
| 2022 | 62.7°F | +1.5°F | 44.74 | 2.7 |
| 2023 | 63.8°F | +2.6°F | 44.94 | 0.0 |
| 2024 | 64.4°F | +3.2°F | 54.20 | 0.0 |
| 2025 | 62.6°F | +1.4°F | 41.32 | 4.9 |
Over 130 complete years from 1887 to 2024, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.1°F per century (+0.12°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00013722; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Raleigh's climate compare?
Raleigh is warmer than 87 of the other 130 places with their own NOAA record in North Carolina, and wetter than 17. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 61.2°F is warmer than 78%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Raleigh is Cfa: temperate, no dry season, hot summer. 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 Raleigh share this climate record?
Morrisville has no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of its 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.
- Morrisville, NC32,628 people · 5 mi SW
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 Raleigh's other NOAA stations record?
2 more NOAA stations keep 1991-2020 normals in or near Raleigh. This page uses Raleigh-Durham International Airport; the others differ by site and elevation:
| Station | From the center | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raleigh (4 mi SW) USC00317074 | 7 mi S | 420 ft | 61.8°F | 33°F | 90°F | 50.5 | – | March 28 |
| Raleigh State University USC00317079 | 4 mi SW | 400 ft | 61.1°F | 32°F | 91°F | 49.4 | 5 | March 28 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for each station. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
Questions about Raleigh's climate
What is the coldest month in Raleigh?
January, with a normal high of 52°F and a normal low of 32°F. The warmest is July (91°F by day, 70°F at night).
Does it snow in Raleigh?
Yes: 5 inches in a normal year, falling on 3 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in January (2.6 inches).
What is the rainiest month in Raleigh?
September, with 5.15 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 2.78 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Raleigh in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Raleigh in zone 8a across its 16 ZIP code areas (8a in 27610, the largest). By the same method at Raleigh's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 12°F (30 years, 1991-2020): zone 8a.
How late can frost come in Raleigh?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after March 31; in one year in ten it comes after April 16. Waiting until April 16 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Raleigh in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- North Carolina climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Falls Lake, NC9 miles from this station, 58.1°F a year
- Apex, NC11 miles from this station, 60.1°F a year
- Cary, NC12 miles from this station, 59.7°F a year
- Durham, NC14 miles from this station, 58.3°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made