Richmond, California climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Richmond's normal year runs from 44°F January nights to 75°F September afternoons, with 24.4 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 14.9°C, January lows of 7°C, September highs of 24°C, 620 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationRichmond
- Station IDUSC00047414
- Location37.92°N 122.38°W
- Elevation20 ft (6 m)
- Population115,353
On October 22, the normal high in Richmond is 72°F and the normal low 53°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 10%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Richmond.
- Jan 58° 44°
- Feb 61° 46°
- Mar 64° 47°
- Apr 67° 49°
- May 69° 52°
- Jun 72° 54°
- Jul 71° 55°
- Aug 72° 56°
- Sep 75° 56°
- Oct 73° 54°
- Nov 65° 49°
- Dec 58° 44°
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 Richmond each month?
September is the warmest month, with normal highs of 75°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 44°F. The most precipitation falls in December (4.90 in), the least in July (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 | 58°F | 44°F | 51.1°F | 4.83 | 10 | <1 | <1 | 9 h 50 min |
| February | 61°F | 46°F | 53.6°F | 4.76 | 9 | <1 | <1 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 64°F | 47°F | 55.8°F | 3.17 | 9 | <1 | <1 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 67°F | 49°F | 58.2°F | 1.57 | 6 | <1 | <1 | 13 h 10 min |
| May | 69°F | 52°F | 60.5°F | 0.72 | 3 | <1 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| June | 72°F | 54°F | 63.0°F | 0.27 | 1 | 1 | <1 | 14 h 50 min |
| July | 71°F | 55°F | 63.0°F | 0.00 | <1 | <1 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| August | 72°F | 56°F | 64.0°F | 0.07 | <1 | 1 | <1 | 13 h 40 min |
| September | 75°F | 56°F | 65.4°F | 0.03 | <1 | 2 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 73°F | 54°F | 63.3°F | 1.42 | 3 | 1 | <1 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 65°F | 49°F | 56.7°F | 2.67 | 6 | <1 | <1 | 10 h 10 min |
| December | 58°F | 44°F | 51.3°F | 4.90 | 10 | <1 | <1 | 9 h 30 min |
| Year (annual) | 67°F | 51°F | 58.8°F | 24.41 | 58 | 5 | <1 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 15°C | 7°C | 10.6°C | 123 mm |
| February | 16°C | 8°C | 12.0°C | 121 mm |
| March | 18°C | 9°C | 13.2°C | 81 mm |
| April | 20°C | 10°C | 14.6°C | 40 mm |
| May | 21°C | 11°C | 15.8°C | 18 mm |
| June | 22°C | 12°C | 17.2°C | 7 mm |
| July | 22°C | 13°C | 17.2°C | 0 mm |
| August | 22°C | 13°C | 17.8°C | 2 mm |
| September | 24°C | 13°C | 18.6°C | 1 mm |
| October | 23°C | 12°C | 17.4°C | 36 mm |
| November | 18°C | 9°C | 13.7°C | 68 mm |
| December | 15°C | 7°C | 10.7°C | 124 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00047414; 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 Richmond?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, June, July, August, September and October. Of those, July has the fewest days with rain (0).
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 USC00047414.
When is the last frost in Richmond?
A night at 32°F or colder comes in only 22% of years in Richmond (NOAA). NOAA's median date of the last spring frost is January 4 and of the first autumn frost January 2.
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 Richmond in zone 10a across its 6 ZIP code areas (10a in 94801, the largest).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in California · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00047414; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026. 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 Richmond ZIP code in?
The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Richmond's 6 ZIP code areas are all in zone 10a. 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 Richmond?
In a normal year in Richmond, 5 days a year reach 90°F, nights almost never fall to freezing and 58 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 5a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- fewer than 1a 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
- 58a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1950) is 107°F, on September 15, 1971; the lowest is 24°F, on December 9, 1972.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1983, with 47.49 in.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00047414; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00047414. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Richmond?
Over a year 80% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Richmond, 4.7 kWh per square metre a day. June is the sunniest month (84%) and December the cloudiest (74%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 125th (with 50 others) in sunshine.
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 76% | 2.5 |
| February | 77% | 3.4 |
| March | 79% | 4.6 |
| April | 82% | 6.0 |
| May | 81% | 6.7 |
| June | 84% | 7.3 |
| July | 78% | 6.5 |
| August | 77% | 5.8 |
| September | 82% | 5.1 |
| October | 83% | 4.0 |
| November | 81% | 2.8 |
| December | 74% | 2.1 |
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 Richmond need?
A normal year in Richmond brings 2,459 heating degree days, 54% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 217 cooling degree days, 76% fewer than the median (908). Three months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 3,322 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 429 | 0 |
| February | 319 | 0 |
| March | 289 | 2 |
| April | 211 | 8 |
| May | 156 | 17 |
| June | 89 | 29 |
| July | 85 | 23 |
| August | 65 | 35 |
| September | 48 | 62 |
| October | 93 | 39 |
| November | 251 | 3 |
| December | 425 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 2,459 | 217 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00047414. 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 Richmond been warmer than normal lately?
Over 36 complete years from 1952 to 2019, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 5.3°F per century (+0.29°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Richmond's climate compare?
Richmond is warmer than 74 of the other 218 places with their own NOAA record in California, and wetter than 153. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 58.8°F is warmer than 71%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Richmond is Csb: temperate, dry-summer, warm 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 Richmond share this climate record?
11 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.
- San Pablo, CA31,562 people · 4 mi NE
- Pinole, CA18,663 people · 7 mi NE
- El Sobrante, CA15,823 people · 6 mi NE
- Tiburon, CA8,933 people · 5 mi SW
- Tara Hills, CA4,912 people · 6 mi NE
- North Richmond, CA3,935 people · 3 mi N
- Rollingwood, CA3,623 people · 4 mi NE
- East Richmond Heights, CA3,311 people · 4 mi NE
- Bayview, CA2,533 people · 7 mi NE
- Belvedere, CA2,080 people · 6 mi SW
- Montalvin Manor, CA2,080 people · 6 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.
Questions about Richmond's climate
What is the coldest month in Richmond?
January, with a normal high of 58°F and a normal low of 44°F. The warmest is September (75°F by day, 56°F at night).
Does it snow in Richmond?
Rarely: NOAA's normal is no measurable snow a year.
What is the rainiest month in Richmond?
December, with 4.90 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is July with 0.00 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Richmond in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Richmond in zone 10a across its 6 ZIP code areas (10a in 94801, the largest).
Nearby and next
- Richmond in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- California climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Berkeley, CA7 miles from this station, 58.5°F a year
- Kentfield, CA9 miles from this station, 59.2°F a year
- San Rafael, CA11 miles from this station, 59.5°F a year
- Oakland Museum, CA11 miles from this station, 59.6°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made