Sacramento, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Average temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, with a derived climate comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Sacramento's primary NOAA station, SACRAMENTO 5 ESE.
The climate verdict for Sacramento
Dryness leads the climate profile for Sacramento, California, with 19.2 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 63°F. It scores 90/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 91% of them.
- 63°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 90/100
- comfort score, above 91% of station-mapped location scores
- 19.2"
- yearly precipitation total
- 338 days
- frost-free growing season
Sacramento: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00023271 · Sacramento, CA 63°F mean · 19.2" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-NARROW · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 63°F
- RANK-UPPER #5,763
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Allendale
- PRCP-DRY 19.2"
- SWING-NARROW 29°F
- COMF-TOP 90/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USW00023271
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Allendale, SC (+ 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.
- Sacramento (this station) 63°F
- Hot Carlsbad Cavern…, NM 63°F
- Near Allendale, SC 63°F
- Near Bankhead L&d, AL 63°F
- Near Canton, MS 63°F
Climate Living Index · Sacramento
Sacramento: 80/100 · grade B
Sacramento publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Sacramento, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 90/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 338 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 63.4°F · 4.1° from 67.5°F | 88/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 88 calendar days | 80/100 · B |
| Precipitation balance | 19.2 in · 15.8 from 35 in | 44/100 · D |
Sacramento · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Sacramento is a temperate Köppen climate: Csa
Coldest-month mean 48.5°F and warmest-month mean 77.9°F place this station in temperate, dry-summer, hot summer climates (Csa). Class Csa is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: temperate, specifically temperate, dry-summer, hot summer.
- Köppen code
- Csa
- Group
- Temperate
- Warmest month
- 77.9°F
- Coldest month
- 48.5°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 Sacramento sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Sacramento's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 16% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Sacramento sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 74%
- Sacramento's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 91%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Sacramento is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Sacramento compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Sacramento's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
90 Top 9% score exceeds 91% 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%). Below this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Below this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). This entry sits in this band.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Sacramento's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 158 complete annual observations from 1854 to 2023, SACRAMENTO 5 ESE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.09°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Sacramento primary station fitted change +0.09 °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 | 57°F (14°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 3.9" | 0.0" | 1.6 | 0.0 |
| February | 62°F (17°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 3.6" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| March | 68°F (20°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 2.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 74°F (23°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.2 |
| May | 81°F (27°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 6.6 |
| June | 89°F (32°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 14.8 |
| July | 94°F (35°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 78°F (26°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 24.0 |
| August | 94°F (34°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 23.5 |
| September | 89°F (32°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 16.3 |
| October | 79°F (26°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.5 |
| November | 65°F (19°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 56°F (14°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 3.5" | 0.0" | 1.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Sacramento runs from a mild 40°F around December 22 to 95°F at the peak near July 19, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 19 through September 14, covering 88 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 31 to November 4.
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.
No freezing date
Not one calendar date in the 1991–2020 record carries a normal low at or below 32°F. The coldest normal low of the year is 40°F around December 22.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is January 22, when 35% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 20 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 61 wet dates a year.
The widest day
July 19 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 Sacramento.
Where Sacramento Stands Nationally
Heat is a defining feature of the normals calendar — the normal daily high reaches 90°F on roughly 88 days a year, more than four out of five ranked stations record.
Daily temperature swings run wider than most of the country, peaking near 33°F between the normal high and low.
Sacramento 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
10.8 days with precipitation
9.6 days with precipitation
9.2 days with precipitation
5.3 days with precipitation
3.7 days with precipitation
1.2 days with precipitation
0.1 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
3.1 days with precipitation
6.8 days with precipitation
10.1 days with precipitation
Sacramento's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 57% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 1%. 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 an unusually narrow 29.4°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 3.9"
- Driest month
- July, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- January, February, December (57% 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 Sacramento's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 61 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 19.2" between them, or roughly 0.32 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.
Sacramento's record shows no measurable snowfall
This station measured snowfall across the 1991-2020 period and recorded none: the annual normal is 0.0 inches. That is a measured zero rather than missing data, which is a meaningful distinction here , most stations in the database simply do not report snow at all, and those pages say nothing about it.
A thirty-year normal of zero describes the typical year at this station. It is not a claim that snow has never fallen in the area.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 16
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 12
50% probability date
Growing Season
338 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,138
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,576
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Sacramento 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).
- Allendale, SC 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Canton, MS 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Emory, TX 63°F · 0.0°F off
- Jal, NM 63°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (19.2" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Bottineau, ND 19.2" · 0.0" off
- Merriman, NE 19.2" · 0.0" off
- Abernathy, TX 19.2" · 0.0" off
- Velva, ND 19.2" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Sacramento's climate pattern fits together
mixed demand · dry · low swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 19.2 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
The calendar stays thermally compact and dry. July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar, only 29.4°F apart, while the annual precipitation total remains below PlainClimate's dry threshold. The annual average is 63°F. The monthly rows show whether that limited precipitation is spread through the year or concentrated in a shorter interval.
Sacramento combines a compact 29.4°F annual temperature range with meaningful demand on both sides of the thermostat: 2,138 heating and 1,576 cooling degree days. The balance matters more here than either annual total in isolation.
Sacramento has a long frost-free window of roughly 338 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Sacramento's primary station, where heating and cooling demand are close enough that neither season sets the character on its own. On a balanced station like Sacramento, the bands are descriptive ranges rather than an official NOAA classification or a forecast.
Questions about Sacramento's climate
How much rain does Sacramento get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Sacramento get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Sacramento? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Sacramento's primary station: SACRAMENTO 5 ESE (USW00023271). 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 0664000). Match rule for Sacramento: 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 Sacramento 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.