Santa Barbara, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Santa Barbara's primary NOAA station, SANTA BARBARA 11 W - 2 stations mapped to the area.
The climate verdict for Santa Barbara
Dryness leads the climate profile for Santa Barbara, California, with 19.0 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 58°F. August is the warmest month at 64°F and December the coldest at 53°F.
- 58°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 19.0"
- yearly precipitation total
Santa Barbara: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00053152 · Santa Barbara, CA 58°F mean · 19.0" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-NARROW · COMF-UNK · LOAD-HEAT · STN-MULTI · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 58°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,803
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Santa Maria Pub…
- PRCP-DRY 19.0"
- SWING-NARROW 12°F
- COMF-UNK Comfort n/a
- LOAD-HEAT 2,498 HDD
- STN-MULTI USW00053152
- BOOK-FULL 5/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Santa Maria Public, CA (+ 0.2 °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 Richmond, CA 59°F
- Near Santa Maria Pub…, CA 59°F
- Near Santa Cruz, CA 59°F
- Near San Francisco, CA 59°F
- Santa Barbara (this station) 58°F
Climate Living Index · Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara: 76/100 · grade B
Santa Barbara publishes 3 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 3 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Santa Barbara, not an official NOAA rating. Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 58.4°F · 9.1° from 67.5°F | 71/100 · B |
| Precipitation balance | 19.0 in · 16.0 from 35 in | 43/100 · D |
Santa Barbara · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method .
Santa Barbara is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 52.5°F and warmest-month mean 64.1°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
- 64.1°F
- Coldest month
- 52.5°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 · heating-led station
Where Santa Barbara sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Santa Barbara's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 30% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Santa Barbara sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 74%
- Santa Barbara'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 Santa Barbara is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64°F (18°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 4.7" | N/A | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| February | 62°F (17°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 4.3" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 65°F (18°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 3.3" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 65°F (19°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 1.0" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.5" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| June | 68°F (20°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.1" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| July | 71°F (22°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.1" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| August | 72°F (22°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.0" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| September | 71°F (22°C) | 56°F (14°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.1" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| October | 72°F (22°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 0.8" | N/A | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| November | 68°F (20°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 1.2" | N/A | 0.1 | 0.1 |
| December | 63°F (17°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 2.8" | N/A | 0.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Santa Barbara: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 42°F near December 18 and 72°F near July 26.
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 42°F around December 18.
The widest day
November 6 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 23°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Santa Barbara.
Where Santa Barbara Stands Nationally
Days and nights track unusually close together; the widest normal swing, about 23°F, is narrower than most stations record.
Santa Barbara 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
Santa Barbara's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 62% 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 11.6°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 4.7"
- Driest month
- August, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- January, February, March (65% 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.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 20
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
December 31
50% probability date
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,498
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
108
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
August
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Santa Barbara 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).
- Camargo, OK 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Cornelia, GA 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Dayton, TN 58°F · 0.0°F off
- Decatur, TN 58°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (19.0" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Chappell, NE 19.0" · 0.0" off
- Hansboro, ND 19.0" · 0.0" off
- Enterprise, OR 19.0" · 0.0" off
- Hazelton, ND 19.0" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Santa Barbara's climate pattern fits together
heating led · dry · low swing
Heating is the larger measured load in Santa Barbara, at 2,498 degree days versus 108 for cooling. Unlike a strongly continental record, however, its 11.6°F month-to-month range is compact; persistent cool-season demand matters more than a dramatic summer-to-winter reversal.
A frost-free growing-season length is not available for Santa Barbara. That missing field is kept separate from the observed temperature and precipitation record rather than filled from a regional estimate.
The calendar stays thermally compact and dry. August and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar, only 11.6°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.
Santa Barbara's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 19.0 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.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Santa Barbara'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 Santa Barbara, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Santa Barbara's climate
How much rain does Santa Barbara get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Santa Barbara? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Santa Barbara's primary station: SANTA BARBARA 11 W (USW00053152). 2 NOAA stations are mapped to the Santa Barbara area; the primary station's record is used for consistency. 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 0669070). Match rule for Santa Barbara: 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 Santa Barbara 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.