Stovepipe Wells, 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 Stovepipe Wells's primary NOAA station, STOVEPIPE WELLS 1 SW.
The climate verdict for Stovepipe Wells
Stovepipe Wells, California is cooling-led and dry. Its 1.9 inches of annual precipitation pairs with an annual average of 77°F. Its climate comfort score of 65/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 56% of station-mapped location scores.
- 77°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 65/100
- comfort score, above 56% of station-mapped location scores
- 1.9"
- annual precipitation
- 352 days
- frost-free growing season
Stovepipe Wells: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00053139 · Stovepipe Wells, CA 77°F mean · 1.9" precip
TEMP-HOT · RANK-WARM · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-MID · LOAD-COOL · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-HOT 77°F
- RANK-WARM #6,792
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Needles
- PRCP-ARID 1.9"
- SWING-WIDE 51°F
- COMF-MID 65/100
- LOAD-COOL 5,533 CDD
- STN-1 USW00053139
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Needles, CA ( -0.8 °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 Death Valley Na…, CA 79°F
- Stovepipe Wells (this station) 77°F
- Near Needles, CA 76°F
- Near Iron Mtn, CA 75°F
- Cold Willow Beach, AZ 74°F
Climate Living Index · Stovepipe Wells
Stovepipe Wells: 46/100 · grade D
Stovepipe Wells publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Stovepipe Wells, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 65/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 352 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 77.0°F · 9.5° from 67.5°F | 70/100 · B |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 176 calendar days | 28/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 1.9 in · 33.0 from 35 in | 0/100 · F |
Stovepipe Wells · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Stovepipe Wells's normals sit in a dry climate class: BWh
Annual precipitation falls well below the aridity threshold for this temperature regime, so the normals classify as hot desert (BWh). Class BWh is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically hot desert.
- Köppen code
- BWh
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 102.3°F
- Coldest month
- 51.8°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 · cooling-led station
Where Stovepipe Wells sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Stovepipe Wells's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 1% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Stovepipe Wells sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 100%
- Stovepipe Wells's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 82%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Stovepipe Wells is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Stovepipe Wells compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Stovepipe Wells's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
65 Top 44% score exceeds 56% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). Above this entry.
- 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
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65°F (18°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 0.2" | 1.1 | 0.0 |
| February | 71°F (21°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 0.6" | 0.1 | 0.0 |
| March | 79°F (26°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.2" | 0.0 | 3.7 |
| April | 88°F (31°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 14.0 |
| May | 98°F (37°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 86°F (30°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 25.9 |
| June | 109°F (43°C) | 83°F (28°C) | 96°F (35°C) | 0.0" | 0.0 | 29.8 |
| July | 115°F (46°C) | 90°F (32°C) | 102°F (39°C) | 0.2" | 0.0 | 31.0 |
| August | 113°F (45°C) | 87°F (31°C) | 100°F (38°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 31.0 |
| September | 105°F (40°C) | 79°F (26°C) | 92°F (33°C) | 0.0" | 0.0 | 28.6 |
| October | 89°F (32°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 0.1" | 0.0 | 14.5 |
| November | 74°F (23°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 0.1" | 0.1 | 0.8 |
| December | 63°F (17°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 0.1" | 1.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Stovepipe Wells runs from a mild 40°F around December 23 to 115°F at the peak near July 16, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from April 22 through October 14, covering 176 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs February 13 to November 22.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
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 23.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 19, when 11% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is November 7 at 2%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 21 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 30 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 26°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Stovepipe Wells.
Where Stovepipe Wells Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 176 days a year the normal daily high itself reaches 90°F — a count fewer than one station in ten exceeds.
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 2 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Stovepipe Wells earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
3.2 days with precipitation
3.2 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
1.5 days with precipitation
3.3 days with precipitation
1.4 days with precipitation
1.6 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
1.4 days with precipitation
0.8 days with precipitation
2.1 days with precipitation
Stovepipe Wells's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 47% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 20%. 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 a wide 50.5°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
- Wettest month
- February, 0.6"
- Driest month
- September, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, July (52% 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.
Stovepipe Wells is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 23 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 6% of the calendar, and they carry 2.0" between them. At roughly 0.09 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is May at about 3 wet days; the driest is September at about 1.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 22
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 4
50% probability date
Growing Season
352 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
1,119
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
5,533
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Stovepipe Wells 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 (77°F here).
- Kahului, HI 77°F · 0.1°F off
- Hialeah, FL 77°F · 0.4°F off
- Miami, FL 77°F · 0.4°F off
- Duck Key, FL 78°F · 0.5°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (1.9" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Yuma Proving Ground, AZ 3.5" · 1.6" off
- Wendover, UT 3.6" · 1.7" off
- Tacna, AZ 3.8" · 1.8" off
- Yuma, AZ 4.0" · 2.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Stovepipe Wells's limited precipitation lands
cooling led · dry · mid swing
Air-conditioning demand is the clearest thermal signal here. Stovepipe Wells accumulates 5,533 cooling degree days, more than twice its 1,119 heating total; the monthly table shows when that imbalance builds rather than treating it as a year-round condition.
Heat demand sits beside limited local precipitation: Stovepipe Wells receives 1.9 inches in a normal year, inside PlainClimate's dry range. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. Month-level precipitation is the useful check on when that small annual total arrives.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Stovepipe Wells's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 50.5°F. The annual average is 77°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
With about 352 frost-free days, the calendar is constrained more by sustained heat than by freeze timing. This does not measure crop suitability or soil moisture; it only reports the NOAA-derived frost-free window for Stovepipe Wells.
Stovepipe Wells wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (1.9 inches).
Stovepipe Wells driest normal
June
June is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Stovepipe Wells's climate
How dry is Stovepipe Wells? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Stovepipe Wells get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Stovepipe Wells? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Stovepipe Wells's primary station: STOVEPIPE WELLS 1 SW (USW00053139). 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 Stovepipe Wells; 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 Stovepipe Wells 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.