Sterling Heights, Michigan climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Sterling Heights's center at January lows of 18°F and July highs of 84°F, a yearly mean of 49.7°F and 33.6 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Mount Clemens (11 miles E, 580 ft), has January lows of 18°F and July highs of 82°F.
134,342 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 32° 18°
- Feb 35° 20°
- Mar 45° 27°
- Apr 58° 37°
- May 70° 48°
- Jun 79° 58°
- Jul 84° 63°
- Aug 81° 62°
- Sep 74° 54°
- Oct 62° 43°
- Nov 48° 33°
- Dec 37° 25°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
The months above are NOAA's gridded normals at Sterling Heights's center.
What is each month like in Sterling Heights?
NOAA's grid estimates the normals every 5 km or so from the stations around each point, terrain included. It smooths between stations, so night lows at the heart of a large city can run warmer than the grid shows: at five big-city airports we compared, the grid's highs were within about 1°F of the station and its lows 1-6°F cooler. The nearest record's high and low are beside each month.
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Mount Clemens high | Mount Clemens low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32°F | 18°F | 25.1°F | 2.20 | 32°F | 18°F |
| February | 35°F | 20°F | 27.0°F | 1.88 | 34°F | 19°F |
| March | 45°F | 27°F | 35.8°F | 2.28 | 44°F | 26°F |
| April | 58°F | 37°F | 47.6°F | 3.10 | 56°F | 36°F |
| May | 70°F | 48°F | 59.1°F | 3.74 | 68°F | 47°F |
| June | 79°F | 58°F | 68.9°F | 3.24 | 78°F | 57°F |
| July | 84°F | 63°F | 73.2°F | 3.36 | 82°F | 62°F |
| August | 81°F | 62°F | 71.5°F | 3.33 | 80°F | 61°F |
| September | 74°F | 54°F | 64.3°F | 3.16 | 73°F | 53°F |
| October | 62°F | 43°F | 52.3°F | 2.68 | 61°F | 43°F |
| November | 48°F | 33°F | 40.5°F | 2.53 | 48°F | 32°F |
| December | 37°F | 25°F | 30.9°F | 2.13 | 37°F | 24°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 9.8°C, January lows of −8°C, July highs of 29°C and 854 mm of precipitation a year.
Source: NOAA NCEI U.S. Monthly Gridded Climate Normals 1991-2020 (nClimGrid, accession 0245564); NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 station normals. The grid cell holding the city's Census center point.
What do the station records around Sterling Heights say?
Each row is a NOAA station's own 1991-2020 normals, with the snow and frost dates the grid does not give. A record downhill or nearer the coast than the city can run warmer, one uphill cooler: compare the elevations.
| Record | Where | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mount ClemensMount Clemens Ang Base | 11 mi E | 580 ft | 48.7°F | 18°F | 82°F | 35.0 | 32 | April 30 |
| Pontiac Wastewater Treatment Plant | 12 mi W | 890 ft | 49.1°F | 17°F | 82°F | 33.9 | 36 | April 26 |
| Grosse Pointe Farms | 14 mi SE | 613 ft | 48.5°F | 17°F | 82°F | 35.8 | 28 | April 29 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals; place center and population: Census Bureau 2024. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
How much snow, how late a frost, what zone and how much sun in Sterling Heights?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Mount Clemens (11 miles E, 580 ft). It gets 32 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 30 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 24. Its record high is 106°F (1911) and its record low −24°F (1912) (kept since 1896).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Sterling Heights in zone 6b across its 4 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 71% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (3.8 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); July is the sunniest month (80%) and January the cloudiest (52%).
Mount Clemens's page has its months, frost probabilities, records by month and recent years. NOAA's grid has monthly figures only, so there are no day-by-day month pages for Sterling Heights; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00014804; records: ACIS; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; sunshine: NASA POWER.
How does the climate vary across Sterling Heights, ZIP code by ZIP code?
4 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Sterling Heights. On NOAA's grid 48312 is the warmest (49.7°F a year) and 48314 the coolest (49.5°F), so the city is nearly uniform. Each row also names the nearest station record and its frost dates.
| ZIP code | Zone | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Nearest record | Last frost | First frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48310 | 6b | 49.6°F | 18°F | 84°F | 33.6 | Pontiac Wastewater Treatment Plant (11 mi) | April 26 | October 22 |
| 48312 | 6b | 49.7°F | 18°F | 84°F | 33.6 | Mount Clemens (10 mi) | April 30 | October 24 |
| 48313 | 6b | 49.6°F | 18°F | 83°F | 33.7 | Mount Clemens (9 mi) | April 30 | October 24 |
| 48314 | 6b | 49.5°F | 18°F | 84°F | 33.5 | Pontiac Wastewater Treatment Plant (10 mi) | April 26 | October 22 |
Source: Census Bureau 2020 ZCTA-to-place relationship file and ZCTA centers; NOAA NCEI gridded and station normals, 1991-2020. A ZIP area counts when at least a tenth of its land (and 0.5 km²) is in the city; its figures are the grid cell at its center; frost dates are the nearest record's medians of 32°F.