Salinas Municipal, 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 Municipal's primary NOAA station, SALINAS MUNICIPAL AP.
The climate verdict for Salinas Municipal
Dryness leads the climate profile for Salinas Municipal, California, with 12.6 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 58°F. It scores 76/100 for climate comfort (good), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 69% of them.
- 58°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 76/100
- comfort score, above 69% of station-mapped location scores
- 12.6"
- annual precipitation
- 315 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Salinas Municipal: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00023233 · Salinas Municipal, CA 58°F mean · 12.6" 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 ≈ Oakland
- PRCP-DRY 12.6"
- SWING-NARROW 13°F
- COMF-TOP 76/100
- LOAD-HEAT 2,635 HDD
- STN-1 USW00023233
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Oakland, CA (+ 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.
- Hot Berkeley, CA 59°F
- Salinas Municip… (this station) 58°F
- Cold San Francisco D…, CA 58°F
- Near Oakland, CA 58°F
- Near Salinas, CA 58°F
Climate Living Index · Salinas Municipal
Salinas Municipal: 74/100 · grade B
Salinas Municipal publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Salinas Municipal, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 76/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 315 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 58.1°F · 9.4° from 67.5°F | 70/100 · B |
| Precipitation balance | 12.6 in · 22.4 from 35 in | 20/100 · F |
Salinas Municipal · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Salinas Municipal is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 51.1°F and warmest-month mean 64.2°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
- 64.2°F
- Coldest month
- 51.1°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 Municipal sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Salinas Municipal'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 89%
- Salinas Municipal'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 Municipal is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Salinas Municipal compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Salinas Municipal's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
76 Top 31% score exceeds 69% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Above this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Salinas Municipal's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 78 complete annual observations from 1934 to 2025, SALINAS MUNICIPAL AP warmed at a fitted rate of 0.15°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Salinas Municipal primary station fitted change +0.15 °C/decade
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62°F (17°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 2.6" | 1.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 63°F (17°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 2.4" | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 66°F (19°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 2.1" | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| April | 67°F (19°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.9" | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.4" | 0.0 | 0.6 |
| June | 70°F (21°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| July | 71°F (22°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| August | 72°F (22°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.5 |
| September | 74°F (24°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 1.8 |
| October | 74°F (23°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 0.6" | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| November | 68°F (20°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 1.3" | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| December | 62°F (16°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 2.1" | 2.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Salinas Municipal: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 40°F near December 18 and 75°F near September 20.
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 18.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 14, when 33% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 9 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 56 wet dates a year.
The widest day
October 27 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 25°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Salinas Municipal.
Where Salinas Municipal Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 13 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Salinas Municipal 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
9.4 days with precipitation
9.3 days with precipitation
9.0 days with precipitation
5.5 days with precipitation
2.9 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
0.3 days with precipitation
0.7 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
5.7 days with precipitation
8.4 days with precipitation
Salinas Municipal'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 13.1°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 2.6"
- 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 Salinas Municipal's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 56 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 12.6" between them, or roughly 0.22 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.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 10
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 29
50% probability date
Growing Season
315 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,635
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
134
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
September
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Salinas Municipal 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).
- Cairo, IL 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Dickson, TN 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Henderson, TN 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Hillsboro, NM 58°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (12.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Carefree, AZ 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Marathon, TX 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Ruth, NV 12.6" · 0.0" off
- Fence Lake, NM 12.6" · 0.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Salinas Municipal's limited precipitation lands
heating led · dry · low swing
Heating is the larger measured load in Salinas Municipal, at 2,635 degree days versus 134 for cooling. Unlike a strongly continental record, however, its 13.1°F month-to-month range is compact; persistent cool-season demand matters more than a dramatic summer-to-winter reversal.
Salinas Municipal has a long frost-free window of roughly 315 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 13.1°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 Municipal's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 12.6 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
Salinas Municipal wettest normal
January
January concentrates the scarce annual total (12.6 inches).
Salinas Municipal driest normal
July
July is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Salinas Municipal's climate
How dry is Salinas Municipal? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Salinas Municipal? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Salinas Municipal's primary station: SALINAS MUNICIPAL AP (USW00023233). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The conservative exact name-and-state crosswalk finds no Census place match, so PlainClimate treats this as a station-mapped location and does not claim it is a municipality. No exact Gazetteer row for Salinas Municipal; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Salinas Municipal 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.