Taft, 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 Taft's primary NOAA station, TAFT.
The climate verdict for Taft
Dryness leads the climate profile for Taft, California, with 6.0 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 66°F. It scores 80/100 for climate comfort (excellent), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 76% of them.
- 66°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 80/100
- comfort score, above 76% of station-mapped location scores
- 6.0"
- yearly precipitation total
- 327 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Taft: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00048752 · Taft, CA 66°F mean · 6.0" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-TOP · LOAD-MIX · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 66°F
- RANK-UPPER #6,106
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Aguila
- PRCP-ARID 6.0"
- SWING-MID 34°F
- COMF-TOP 80/100
- LOAD-MIX H/C balanced
- STN-1 USC00048752
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Aguila, AZ (+ 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.
- Taft (this station) 66°F
- Hot Corsicana, TX 66°F
- Near Aguila, AZ 66°F
- Near Barstow, CA 66°F
- Near Centerville, TX 66°F
Climate Living Index · Taft
Taft: 71/100 · grade B
Taft publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Taft, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 80/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Frost-free season | 327 days/year | 100/100 · A |
| Annual temperature balance | 65.7°F · 1.8° from 67.5°F | 94/100 · A |
| Snowfall burden | 0.2 inches/year | 89/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 111 calendar days | 70/100 · B |
| Precipitation balance | 6.0 in · 29.0 from 35 in | 3/100 · F |
Taft · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Taft'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
- 83.3°F
- Coldest month
- 49.6°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 · balanced station
Where Taft sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Taft's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Top 11% warmest
- Among 6,861 stations, Taft sits in the warmer third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 99%
- Taft's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 85%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Taft is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Taft compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Taft's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
80 Top 24% score exceeds 76% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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 | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59°F (15°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 1.1" | 0.1" | 2.1 | 0.0 |
| February | 63°F (17°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 1.2" | 0.1" | 0.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 70°F (21°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 1.0" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.2 |
| April | 76°F (24°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 2.2 |
| May | 84°F (29°C) | 56°F (14°C) | 70°F (21°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 8.9 |
| June | 93°F (34°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 76°F (25°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 20.1 |
| July | 99°F (37°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 83°F (29°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 29.4 |
| August | 98°F (37°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 82°F (28°C) | 0.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 28.7 |
| September | 92°F (34°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 0.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 19.0 |
| October | 81°F (27°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 4.0 |
| November | 67°F (19°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| December | 59°F (15°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 3.1 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
The year in Taft runs from a mild 40°F around December 22 to 100°F at the peak near July 23, and the normal low never reaches freezing on any date in the record.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 6 through September 24, covering 111 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs March 15 to November 8.
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 22.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is February 11, when 28% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 25 at 1%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 42 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 17 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 34°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Taft.
Where Taft Stands Nationally
Summers here run among the most heat-heavy normals calendars in the country: on about 111 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 6 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Taft earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 0.1"
8.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.1"
8.0 days with precipitation
5.2 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
2.1 days with precipitation
0.4 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
0.2 days with precipitation
0.9 days with precipitation
1.9 days with precipitation
3.9 days with precipitation
6.0 days with precipitation
Taft's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 53% 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 a 33.7°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 1.2"
- Driest month
- August, 0.0"
- Wettest three months
- February, January, March (55% 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.
Taft is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 41 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 11% of the calendar, and they carry 6.0" between them. At roughly 0.14 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 January at about 9 wet days; the driest is July at about 0.
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.
Snow reaches Taft, but rarely amounts to much
The normals record 0.2 inches of snow a year here, most likely in January. That is a real but marginal amount: enough that snow is part of the local record, not enough to define the winter.
A figure in this range usually reflects a handful of events that melt quickly rather than a season of accumulation; about 0 days a year record any measurable snow at all.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals. An average across thirty years can smooth away a single heavy winter, so a small annual figure does not mean a significant snowfall is impossible.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
December 17
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
January 24
50% probability date
Growing Season
327 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
1,935
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
2,206
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Taft 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 (66°F here).
- Aguila, AZ 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Centerville, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Corsicana, TX 66°F · 0.0°F off
- Eastman, GA 66°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (6.0" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Fort Duchesne, UT 6.0" · 0.0" off
- Bunkerville, NV 5.9" · 0.1" off
- Topaz Lake, NV 5.9" · 0.1" off
- Lovelock, NV 6.1" · 0.1" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Taft's limited precipitation lands
mixed demand · dry · mid swing
Local precipitation is sparse in this otherwise mixed profile. The station reports 6.0 inches annually, within PlainClimate's dry band. Recorded annual snowfall is negligible. The monthly distribution matters because the total alone does not reveal the timing.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Taft's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 33.7°F. The annual average is 66°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Heating and cooling both register in Taft's normal, at 1,935 and 2,206 degree days respectively. Neither total exceeds the other by more than two to one, so the record is better read as a mixed-demand calendar than as heating-led or cooling-led.
Taft has a long frost-free window of roughly 327 days, but the dry annual profile is a separate constraint. Growing-season length says when freezes are unlikely, not whether rainfall is sufficient.
Taft wettest normal
February
February concentrates the scarce annual total (6.0 inches).
Taft driest normal
August
August is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Taft's climate
How dry is Taft? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Taft get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Taft? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Taft's primary station: TAFT (USC00048752). 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 0677574). Match rule for Taft: 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 Taft 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.