Surprise, Arizona climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put Surprise's center at January lows of 41°F and July highs of 105°F, a yearly mean of 71.7°F and 8.0 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Wittmann (8 miles NW, 1,683 ft), has January lows of 39°F and July highs of 105°F.
167,564 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 67° 41°
- Feb 70° 44°
- Mar 76° 48°
- Apr 84° 54°
- May 93° 62°
- Jun 103° 71°
- Jul 105° 79°
- Aug 104° 78°
- Sep 98° 72°
- Oct 87° 59°
- Nov 75° 47°
- Dec 65° 40°
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 Surprise's center.
What is each month like in Surprise?
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. | Wittmann high | Wittmann low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 67°F | 41°F | 53.7°F | 1.01 | 65°F | 39°F |
| February | 70°F | 44°F | 56.6°F | 1.04 | 68°F | 41°F |
| March | 76°F | 48°F | 62.4°F | 1.06 | 75°F | 46°F |
| April | 84°F | 54°F | 68.8°F | 0.17 | 82°F | 51°F |
| May | 93°F | 62°F | 77.6°F | 0.11 | 92°F | 60°F |
| June | 103°F | 71°F | 86.7°F | 0.04 | 102°F | 69°F |
| July | 105°F | 79°F | 92.0°F | 0.77 | 105°F | 77°F |
| August | 104°F | 78°F | 90.9°F | 0.99 | 103°F | 77°F |
| September | 98°F | 72°F | 84.9°F | 0.81 | 98°F | 70°F |
| October | 87°F | 59°F | 72.8°F | 0.44 | 87°F | 57°F |
| November | 75°F | 47°F | 61.1°F | 0.60 | 74°F | 46°F |
| December | 65°F | 40°F | 52.5°F | 0.99 | 64°F | 39°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 22.1°C, January lows of 5°C, July highs of 41°C and 204 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 Surprise 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wittmann1 mi SE | 8 mi NW | 1,683 ft | 70.2°F | 39°F | 105°F | 9.6 | 0 | February 5 |
| Youngtown | 10 mi SE | 1,135 ft | 71.9°F | 41°F | 105°F | 8.3 | 0 | January 20 |
| Litchfield Park | 13 mi SE | 1,040 ft | 73.3°F | 43°F | 107°F | 8.2 | 0 | January 7 |
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 Surprise?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Wittmann (8 miles NW, 1,683 ft). It gets 0 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after February 5 in half of years and the first autumn frost before December 11. Its record high is 119°F (2013) and its record low 12°F (1963) (kept since 1930).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Surprise in zone 9b across its 6 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 92% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (5.8 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); June is the sunniest month (97%) and December the cloudiest (86%).
Wittmann'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 Surprise; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USC00029464; 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 Surprise, ZIP code by ZIP code?
6 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in Surprise. On NOAA's grid 85378 is the warmest (72.5°F a year) and 85361 the coolest (70.3°F), a spread of 2.2°F. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 85361 | 9b | 70.3°F | 40°F | 104°F | 9.0 | Wittmann (6 mi) | February 5 | December 11 |
| 85374 | 9b | 72.1°F | 41°F | 106°F | 7.7 | Youngtown (6 mi) | January 20 | December 15 |
| 85378 | 9b | 72.5°F | 42°F | 106°F | 7.9 | Youngtown (4 mi) | January 20 | December 15 |
| 85379 | 9b | 72.5°F | 42°F | 106°F | 7.9 | Youngtown (4 mi) | January 20 | December 15 |
| 85387 | 9b | 71.7°F | 41°F | 105°F | 8.0 | Wittmann (6 mi) | February 5 | December 11 |
| 85388 | 9b | 72.1°F | 41°F | 106°F | 7.8 | Youngtown (8 mi) | January 20 | December 15 |
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.