Shasta, California climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Shasta's normal year runs from 41°F December nights to 97°F July afternoons, with 63.0 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 17.5°C, December lows of 5°C, July highs of 36°C, 1,601 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationShasta Dam
- Station IDUSC00048135
- Location40.71°N 122.42°W
- Elevation1,075 ft (328 m)
- From the center9 miles
- Population (census place)1,330
On October 14, the normal high in Shasta is 79°F and the normal low 55°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 15%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Shasta.
- Jan 55° 41°
- Feb 59° 42°
- Mar 63° 44°
- Apr 70° 48°
- May 79° 55°
- Jun 88° 63°
- Jul 97° 69°
- Aug 96° 68°
- Sep 90° 63°
- Oct 78° 55°
- Nov 62° 46°
- Dec 54° 41°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Shasta each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 97°F; December the coldest, with normal lows of 41°F. The most precipitation falls in December (11.99 in), the least in July (0.14 in).
Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55°F | 41°F | 47.8°F | 10.51 | 14 | <1 | 2 | 9 h 30 min |
| February | 59°F | 42°F | 50.2°F | 11.41 | 13 | <1 | 1 | 10 h 40 min |
| March | 63°F | 44°F | 53.6°F | 9.24 | 13 | <1 | <1 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 70°F | 48°F | 58.6°F | 4.61 | 10 | <1 | <1 | 13 h 10 min |
| May | 79°F | 55°F | 67.1°F | 2.93 | 8 | 5 | <1 | 14 h 20 min |
| June | 88°F | 63°F | 75.6°F | 1.51 | 3 | 14 | <1 | 15 h |
| July | 97°F | 69°F | 83.0°F | 0.14 | 1 | 26 | <1 | 14 h 50 min |
| August | 96°F | 68°F | 81.8°F | 0.16 | 1 | 25 | <1 | 13 h 50 min |
| September | 90°F | 63°F | 76.6°F | 0.52 | 2 | 17 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 78°F | 55°F | 66.2°F | 3.43 | 5 | 3 | <1 | 11 h 10 min |
| November | 62°F | 46°F | 54.2°F | 6.59 | 10 | <1 | <1 | 10 h |
| December | 54°F | 41°F | 47.4°F | 11.99 | 14 | <1 | 2 | 9 h 20 min |
| Year (annual) | 74°F | 53°F | 63.5°F | 63.04 | 93 | 90 | 6 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 13°C | 5°C | 8.8°C | 267 mm |
| February | 15°C | 5°C | 10.1°C | 290 mm |
| March | 17°C | 7°C | 12.0°C | 235 mm |
| April | 21°C | 9°C | 14.8°C | 117 mm |
| May | 26°C | 13°C | 19.5°C | 74 mm |
| June | 31°C | 17°C | 24.2°C | 38 mm |
| July | 36°C | 21°C | 28.3°C | 4 mm |
| August | 36°C | 20°C | 27.7°C | 4 mm |
| September | 32°C | 17°C | 24.8°C | 13 mm |
| October | 25°C | 13°C | 19.0°C | 87 mm |
| November | 17°C | 8°C | 12.3°C | 167 mm |
| December | 12°C | 5°C | 8.6°C | 305 mm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00048135; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
When is the best weather to visit Shasta?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (5).
That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00048135.
When is the last frost in Shasta?
In Shasta, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after February 8 in half of years and after March 28 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before December 28 in half of years and before December 1 in one year in ten. A night at 32°F or colder comes at all in 87% of years here (NOAA).
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- February 81 year in 10 after March 28; 9 in 10 after December 26
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- December 281 year in 10 before December 1; 9 in 10 before February 18
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 322 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 365 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after January 18 in half of springs and before January 4 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Shasta in zone 9a in ZIP code 96087. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Shasta's NOAA station is in zone 9b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches 29°F (24 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in California · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00048135; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get in Shasta?
In a normal year in Shasta, 90 days a year reach 90°F (24 of them 100°F or more), 6 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 93 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 90a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 24a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 6a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- fewer than 1high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 93a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1943) is 115°F, on July 28, 1976; the lowest is 14°F, on December 22, 1990.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1998, with 113.32 in; the snowiest season is 1951–52, with 64.0 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00048135; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00048135. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Shasta?
Over a year 85% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Shasta, 5.0 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (96%) and December the cloudiest (66%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 69% | 2.0 |
| February | 73% | 3.0 |
| March | 73% | 4.2 |
| April | 80% | 5.8 |
| May | 85% | 7.1 |
| June | 92% | 8.1 |
| July | 96% | 8.2 |
| August | 96% | 7.2 |
| September | 94% | 5.8 |
| October | 87% | 4.0 |
| November | 76% | 2.4 |
| December | 66% | 1.7 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How much heating and cooling does Shasta need?
A normal year in Shasta brings 2,582 heating degree days, 52% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 2,071 cooling degree days, 2.3 times the median (908). Five months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 5,342 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 535 | 0 |
| February | 415 | 0 |
| March | 356 | 4 |
| April | 221 | 29 |
| May | 80 | 147 |
| June | 15 | 333 |
| July | 1 | 558 |
| August | 0 | 523 |
| September | 7 | 356 |
| October | 80 | 117 |
| November | 328 | 5 |
| December | 545 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 2,582 | 2,071 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00048135. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Has Shasta been warmer than normal lately?
2023 averaged 62.8°F, 0.7°F below the 1991-2020 normal of 63.5°F. 1 of the 2 complete years since 2022 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 64.9°F | +1.4°F | 27.55 |
| 2023 | 62.8°F | −0.7°F | 71.08 |
Over 62 complete years from 1944 to 2023, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 1.7°F per century (+0.10°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00048135; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Shasta's climate compare?
Shasta is warmer than 161 of the other 218 places with their own NOAA record in California, and wetter than 209. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 63.5°F is warmer than 84%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Shasta is Csa: temperate, dry-summer, hot summer. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Shasta share this climate record?
5 places have no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of their own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.
- Shasta Lake, CA10,244 people · 3 mi SE
- Bella Vista, CA3,843 people · 9 mi SE
- Jones Valley, CA1,212 people · 9 mi E
- Mountain Gate, CA763 people · 5 mi E
- Lakehead, CA523 people · 13 mi N
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Shasta's climate
What is the coldest month in Shasta?
December, with a normal high of 54°F and a normal low of 41°F. The warmest is July (97°F by day, 69°F at night).
What is the rainiest month in Shasta?
December, with 11.99 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is July with 0.14 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Shasta in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Shasta in zone 9a in ZIP code 96087. By the same method at Shasta's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches 29°F (24 years, 1991-2020): zone 9b.
How late can frost come in Shasta?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after February 8; in one year in ten it comes after March 28. Waiting until March 28 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Shasta in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- California climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Whiskeytown Reservoir, CA9 miles from this station, 62.9°F a year
- Redding, CA15 miles from this station, 63.4°F a year
- Trinity River Hatchery, CA20 miles from this station, 56.2°F a year
- Weaverville, CA27 miles from this station, 55.0°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made