West Des Moines, Iowa climate: NOAA's gridded normals for the city, beside the nearest station records
NOAA's gridded 1991-2020 normals put West Des Moines's center at January lows of 13°F and July highs of 85°F, a yearly mean of 50.0°F and 35.2 inches of precipitation. No NOAA station keeps a record under the city's name. The nearest station record, Des Moines (7 miles E, 957 ft), has January lows of 14°F and July highs of 86°F.
73,664 people (Census Bureau 2024). Distances and directions are from the city's center.
- Jan 30° 13°
- Feb 35° 17°
- Mar 49° 28°
- Apr 62° 39°
- May 72° 50°
- Jun 82° 61°
- Jul 85° 65°
- Aug 83° 62°
- Sep 77° 54°
- Oct 64° 41°
- Nov 48° 29°
- Dec 36° 19°
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 West Des Moines's center.
What is each month like in West Des Moines?
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. | Des Moines high | Des Moines low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30°F | 13°F | 21.6°F | 0.89 | 31°F | 14°F |
| February | 35°F | 17°F | 26.2°F | 1.14 | 36°F | 18°F |
| March | 49°F | 28°F | 38.4°F | 2.06 | 49°F | 30°F |
| April | 62°F | 39°F | 50.6°F | 3.78 | 62°F | 41°F |
| May | 72°F | 50°F | 61.2°F | 5.12 | 72°F | 52°F |
| June | 82°F | 61°F | 71.2°F | 5.07 | 82°F | 62°F |
| July | 85°F | 65°F | 74.9°F | 4.03 | 86°F | 66°F |
| August | 83°F | 62°F | 72.6°F | 4.02 | 84°F | 64°F |
| September | 77°F | 54°F | 65.2°F | 3.44 | 77°F | 55°F |
| October | 64°F | 41°F | 52.6°F | 2.56 | 63°F | 43°F |
| November | 48°F | 29°F | 38.8°F | 1.78 | 48°F | 30°F |
| December | 36°F | 19°F | 27.1°F | 1.33 | 36°F | 20°F |
In metric: a yearly mean of 10.0°C, January lows of −11°C, July highs of 30°C and 895 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 West Des Moines 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Des MoinesDes Moines International Airport | 7 mi E | 957 ft | 50.9°F | 14°F | 86°F | 36.5 | 37 | April 18 |
| Des Moines Weather Office-Johnston | 13 mi N | 959 ft | 50.3°F | 13°F | 85°F | 36.2 | 38 | April 19 |
| Ankeny | 14 mi NE | 975 ft | 49.5°F | 12°F | 86°F | 37.0 | 25 | April 23 |
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 West Des Moines?
NOAA's grid gives no snow, frost dates or records, so these come from the nearest station record, Des Moines (7 miles E, 957 ft). It gets 37 inches of snow in a normal year. The last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 18 in half of years and the first autumn frost before October 20. Its record high is 110°F (1936) and its record low −30°F (1884), on the National Weather Service's long record for the area (kept since 1878).
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts West Des Moines in zone 5b across its 2 ZIP code areas.
Over a year 75% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area (4.1 kWh per square metre a day, NASA POWER 2001-2020); July is the sunniest month (81%) and December the cloudiest (68%).
Des Moines'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 West Des Moines; the nearest record's month pages have them.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals, station USW00014933; 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 West Des Moines, ZIP code by ZIP code?
2 ZIP code areas lie wholly or partly in West Des Moines. On NOAA's grid 50265 is the warmest (50.2°F a year) and 50266 the coolest (50.0°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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 50265 | 5b | 50.2°F | 13°F | 85°F | 35.2 | Des Moines (5 mi) | April 18 | October 20 |
| 50266 | 5b | 50.0°F | 13°F | 85°F | 35.1 | Des Moines (9 mi) | April 18 | October 20 |
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.