Truckee-tahoe, CA Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Average temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, with a derived climate comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Truckee-tahoe's primary NOAA station, TRUCKEE-TAHOE AP.
The climate verdict for Truckee-tahoe
Truckee-tahoe, California has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 43°F. July is the warmest month at 63°F and December the coldest at 28°F.
- 43°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 29.1"
- precipitation, annual total
Truckee-tahoe: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00049040 · Truckee-tahoe, CA 43°F mean · 29.1" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-MID · COMF-UNK · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 43°F
- RANK-COOL #823
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Snowshoe
- PRCP-MID 29.1"
- SWING-MID 35°F
- COMF-UNK Comfort n/a
- LOAD-HEAT 8,005 HDD
- STN-1 USC00049040
- BOOK-FULL 5/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Snowshoe, WV (+ 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.
- Truckee-tahoe (this station) 43°F
- Cold Lemon Dam, CO 43°F
- Hot Hoonah, AK 43°F
- Near Snowshoe, WV 43°F
- Near Petersburg, AK 43°F
Climate Living Index · Truckee-tahoe
Truckee-tahoe: 23/100 · grade F
Truckee-tahoe publishes 3 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 3 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Truckee-tahoe, not an official NOAA rating. Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 29.1 in · 5.9 from 35 in | 79/100 · B |
| Annual temperature balance | 43.1°F · 24.4° from 67.5°F | 13/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 250 calendar days | 0/100 · F |
Truckee-tahoe · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method .
Truckee-tahoe is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 27.6°F and warmest-month mean 62.5°F place this station in continental, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Dsb). Class Dsb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dsb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 62.5°F
- Coldest month
- 27.6°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 · heating-led station
Where Truckee-tahoe sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Truckee-tahoe's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 88%
- Among 6,861 stations, Truckee-tahoe sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 39th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 82%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Truckee-tahoe is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42°F (6°C) | 13°F (-10°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 4.9" | 30.8 | 0.0 |
| February | 44°F (7°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 4.8" | 27.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 49°F (9°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 4.2" | 29.8 | 0.0 |
| April | 56°F (13°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 1.9" | 28.7 | 0.0 |
| May | 65°F (18°C) | 29°F (-1°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 1.8" | 22.6 | 0.0 |
| June | 76°F (24°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 0.7" | 9.4 | 2.3 |
| July | 85°F (29°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 0.5" | 1.3 | 8.2 |
| August | 84°F (29°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.5" | 5.5 | 5.6 |
| September | 78°F (25°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 0.6" | 14.8 | 1.0 |
| October | 65°F (18°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 1.7" | 26.3 | 0.0 |
| November | 52°F (11°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 2.5" | 29.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 41°F (5°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 5.1" | 29.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 86°F around July 16, short of 90°F on every date, while 250 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 13°F near January 28.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into May 25, then returns to freezing around September 19, covering 250 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
The widest day
August 29 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 48°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Truckee-tahoe.
Where Truckee-tahoe Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 250 nights a year, placing this among the most frost-prone tenth of ranked stations.
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 48°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Truckee-tahoe earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
Truckee-tahoe's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 51% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 6%. 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 34.9°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- December, 5.1"
- Driest month
- August, 0.5"
- Wettest three months
- December, January, February (51% 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.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
N/A
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
N/A
50% probability date
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,005
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
51
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CA closest to Truckee-tahoe 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 (43°F here).
- Almont, ND 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Bismarck, ND 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Clark, SD 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Grantsburg, WI 43°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (29.1" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Harrisville, MI 29.1" · 0.0" off
- Alice, TX 29.1" · 0.0" off
- Creighton, NE 29.1" · 0.0" off
- Eastland, TX 29.2" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Truckee-tahoe's climate pattern fits together
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Truckee-tahoe's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,005 annual heating degree days against 51 for cooling. Its 34.9°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
A frost-free growing-season length is not available for Truckee-tahoe. That missing field is kept separate from the observed temperature and precipitation record rather than filled from a regional estimate.
July and December mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Truckee-tahoe's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 34.9°F. The annual average is 43°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Truckee-tahoe's 29.1 inches of annual precipitation falls in PlainClimate's middle band, so “wet” or “dry” is not the leading description. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. Temperature balance and the calendar distribution carry more information than the annual moisture label alone.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Truckee-tahoe's primary station, so the winter figures are a thirty-year average and not a floor: a single hard season can run well below them. Treat each band as a descriptive range for Truckee-tahoe, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Truckee-tahoe's climate
How much rain does Truckee-tahoe get? ▼
How cold does Truckee-tahoe get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Truckee-tahoe? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Truckee-tahoe's primary station: TRUCKEE-TAHOE AP (USC00049040). 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 Truckee-tahoe; 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 Truckee-tahoe 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.