Salinas, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Explore NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 climate normals → and a clearly labeled PlainClimate comfort calculation
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Salinas's primary NOAA station, SALINAS #2.
The climate verdict for Salinas
Dryness leads the climate profile for Salinas, California, with 15.4 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 58°F. It scores 80/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 76% of them.
- 58°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 80/100
- comfort score, above 76% of station-mapped location scores
- 15.4"
- annual precipitation
- 305 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Salinas: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00047668 · Salinas, CA 58°F mean · 15.4" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-NARROW · COMF-TOP · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 58°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,734
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ San Francisco D…
- PRCP-DRY 15.4"
- SWING-NARROW 12°F
- COMF-TOP 80/100
- LOAD-HEAT 2,724 HDD
- STN-1 USC00047668
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: San Francisco Dwtn, CA ( -0.1 °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.
- Salinas (this station) 58°F
- Cold Watsonville Wtr…, CA 58°F
- Hot Salinas Municip…, CA 58°F
- Near San Francisco D…, CA 58°F
- Near Oakland, CA 58°F
Climate Living Index · Salinas
Salinas: 77/100 · grade B
Salinas publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Salinas, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 80/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 305 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 57.8°F · 9.7° from 67.5°F | 69/100 · C |
| Precipitation balance | 15.4 in · 19.6 from 35 in | 30/100 · F |
Salinas · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Salinas is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 51.3°F and warmest-month mean 63.6°F place this station in temperate, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Csb). Class Csb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: temperate, specifically temperate, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Csb
- Group
- Temperate
- Warmest month
- 63.6°F
- Coldest month
- 51.3°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 · heating-led station
Where Salinas sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Salinas's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 69th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 82%
- Salinas's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 99%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Salinas is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Salinas compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Salinas's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
80 Top 24% score exceeds 76% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Salinas's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 31 complete annual observations from 1959 to 2015, SALINAS #2 warmed at a fitted rate of 0.28°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Salinas primary station fitted change +0.28 °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 | 63°F (17°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 3.3" | 0.0" | 2.1 | 0.0 |
| February | 64°F (18°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 3.0" | 0.0" | 0.8 | 0.0 |
| March | 66°F (19°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 2.5" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 67°F (20°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 58°F (15°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| June | 70°F (21°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| July | 71°F (22°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| August | 73°F (23°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| September | 75°F (24°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| October | 74°F (23°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| November | 68°F (20°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.6" | 0.0" | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| December | 62°F (17°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 2.8" | 0.0" | 3.6 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Salinas: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 40°F near December 15 and 75°F near September 25.
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 15.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 18, when 34% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 2 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 58 wet dates a year.
The widest day
October 28 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 26°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Salinas.
Where Salinas Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 15 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Salinas earns one nationally notable standing (outer quintile) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations, middle-of-the-pack metrics stay silent here.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
9.4 days with precipitation
9.8 days with precipitation
8.2 days with precipitation
5.7 days with precipitation
3.0 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
0.5 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
2.9 days with precipitation
6.1 days with precipitation
9.5 days with precipitation
Salinas's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 58% 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 12.3°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 3.3"
- Driest month
- July, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- January, February, December (58% 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 Salinas's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 58 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 15.4" between them, or roughly 0.27 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.
Salinas'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 6
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
February 4
50% probability date
Growing Season
305 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,724
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
105
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
September
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Salinas 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 (58°F here).
- Clayton, GA 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Danbury, NC 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Gilbert, AR 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Kiowa, KS 58°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (15.4" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Healy, AK 15.4" · 0.0" off
- Elgin, AZ 15.4" · 0.0" off
- Cheyenne, WY 15.4" · 0.0" off
- Tioga, ND 15.4" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Salinas's climate pattern fits together
heating led · dry · low swing
Heating is the larger measured load in Salinas, at 2,724 degree days versus 105 for cooling. Unlike a strongly continental record, however, its 12.3°F month-to-month range is compact; persistent cool-season demand matters more than a dramatic summer-to-winter reversal.
Salinas has a long frost-free window of roughly 305 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
The calendar stays thermally compact and dry. September and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar, only 12.3°F apart, while the annual precipitation total remains below PlainClimate's dry threshold. The annual average is 58°F. The monthly rows show whether that limited precipitation is spread through the year or concentrated in a shorter interval.
Salinas's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 15.4 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Salinas's primary station, so the winter figures are a thirty-year average and not a floor: a single hard season can run well below them. Treat each band as a descriptive range for Salinas, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Salinas's climate
How much rain does Salinas get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Salinas? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Salinas's primary station: SALINAS #2 (USC00047668). 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 0664224). Match rule for Salinas: 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 Salinas 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.