Santa Cruz, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Pulled from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →: climate measurements used in PlainClimate's documented score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Santa Cruz's primary NOAA station, SANTA CRUZ.
The climate verdict for Santa Cruz
A compact 14°F seasonal swing gives Santa Cruz, California a steadier-than-extreme annual shape. NOAA reports an annual average of 59°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.
- 59°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 90/100
- comfort score, above 91% of station-mapped location scores
- 30.6"
- precipitation, annual total
- 318 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Santa Cruz: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00047916 · Santa Cruz, CA 59°F mean · 30.6" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-NARROW · COMF-TOP · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 59°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,871
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ San Francisco
- PRCP-MID 30.6"
- SWING-NARROW 14°F
- COMF-TOP 90/100
- LOAD-HEAT 2,488 HDD
- STN-1 USC00047916
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: San Francisco, 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.
- Santa Cruz (this station) 59°F
- Hot Richmond, CA 59°F
- Near San Francisco, CA 59°F
- Near Santa Maria Pub…, CA 59°F
- Cold Santa Barbara, CA 58°F
Climate Living Index · Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz: 88/100 · grade A
Santa Cruz publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Santa Cruz, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 90/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 318 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 0 calendar days | 100/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.0 inches/year | 90/100 · A |
| Precipitation balance | 30.6 in · 4.4 from 35 in | 84/100 · B |
| Annual temperature balance | 58.7°F · 8.8° from 67.5°F | 72/100 · B |
Santa Cruz · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Santa Cruz is a temperate Köppen climate: Csb
Coldest-month mean 51.2°F and warmest-month mean 65.2°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
- 65.2°F
- Coldest month
- 51.2°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 Cruz sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Santa Cruz's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 29% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Santa Cruz sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 41st percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 99%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Santa Cruz is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Santa Cruz compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Santa Cruz'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
Santa Cruz's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 109 complete annual observations from 1875 to 2019, SANTA CRUZ warmed at a fitted rate of 0.07°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Santa Cruz primary station fitted change +0.07 °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) | 6.4" | 0.0" | 1.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 64°F (18°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 6.1" | 0.0" | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 67°F (19°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 4.3" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 69°F (21°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| May | 71°F (22°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| June | 74°F (23°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.9 |
| July | 74°F (24°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.3 |
| August | 76°F (24°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| September | 77°F (25°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.1 |
| October | 74°F (23°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.0 |
| November | 67°F (19°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 3.2" | 0.0" | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 62°F (16°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 6.0" | 0.0" | 2.5 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The calendar barely moves in Santa Cruz: no date carries a normal high of 90°F or a normal low at freezing. The year runs between 41°F near December 17 and 77°F near September 4.
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 41°F around December 17.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 17, when 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 25 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 66 wet dates a year.
The widest day
October 11 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 Santa Cruz.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
10.6 days with precipitation
10.7 days with precipitation
9.5 days with precipitation
6.0 days with precipitation
3.5 days with precipitation
1.3 days with precipitation
0.6 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
3.6 days with precipitation
6.9 days with precipitation
10.2 days with precipitation
Santa Cruz's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 60% 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 14°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- January, 6.4"
- Driest month
- July, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- January, February, December (60% 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.
When it rains in Santa Cruz, it arrives in quantity
30.6" of precipitation falls across only about 65 wet days here, averaging 0.47 inches each. Fewer days carry more water: the year's total is delivered in comparatively heavy events rather than persistent damp.
- Days with measurable precipitation
- about 65 a year, 18% of all days
- Average depth per wet day
- 0.47 inches
- Most wet days
- February, about 11
- Fewest wet days
- July, about 1
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, and a per-day average is not a forecast of any individual storm.
Santa Cruz'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 13
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 29
50% probability date
Growing Season
318 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
2,488
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
180
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
August
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Santa Cruz 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 (59°F here).
- Amarillo, TX 59°F · 0.0°F off
- Chesnee, SC 59°F · 0.0°F off
- Dyersburg, TN 59°F · 0.0°F off
- Forest City, NC 59°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (30.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Brainerd, MN 30.6" · 0.0" off
- Brownwood, TX 30.6" · 0.0" off
- Elk City, ID 30.6" · 0.0" off
- Belleville, KS 30.6" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Santa Cruz's climate pattern fits together
heating led · moderate · low swing
Heating is the larger measured load in Santa Cruz, at 2,488 degree days versus 180 for cooling. Unlike a strongly continental record, however, its 14.0°F month-to-month range is compact; persistent cool-season demand matters more than a dramatic summer-to-winter reversal.
The frost-free window extends for about 318 days. That is a long calendar measure, but it is not a forecast and does not combine heat, rainfall, soil, or local elevation into a planting recommendation.
Temperature varies within a narrow 14.0°F band across the normal year. August and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar. The annual average is 59°F. Monthly rows still matter, but they refine a steady profile rather than reveal two climatic extremes.
Santa Cruz's 30.6 inches of annual precipitation falls in PlainClimate's middle band, so “wet” or “dry” is not the leading description. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. Temperature balance and the calendar distribution carry more information than the annual moisture label alone.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Santa Cruz'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 Cruz, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Santa Cruz's climate
How much rain does Santa Cruz get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Santa Cruz? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Santa Cruz's primary station: SANTA CRUZ (USC00047916). 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 0669112). Match rule for Santa Cruz: 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 Cruz 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.