Desert conditions · Climate
California City weather year round: the climate month by month
Long hot summers, cold winter nights, very little rain and a windy spring. Here is a normal year in California City month by month, from NOAA's thirty-year climate normals, a century of temperature records and a decade of wind records from the two nearest airports.
Reference sections last reviewed · 9 sources
What is California City's climate like?
A desert climate: 34 days a year reach 100°F, 40 nights fall to freezing, and less than 6 inches of rain and snow fall in a normal year.3 Temperatures, rain and freezing nights are NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for Mojave, the nearest station that has them1; the wind is the Mojave airport’s hourly reports from 2016 to 2025.2
California City average temperature by month
Average highs climb from 58°F in January to 97°F in July and August, and average lows from 32°F in December to 69°F in July.1
Average high and low, °F, month by month
The table has each month’s average high and low, precipitation and nights at or below freezing1, with the Mojave airport’s average wind and the share of days on which it recorded a gust of 40 mph or more.2
| Month | NOAA normals, 1991–2020 | Wind, 2016–2025 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High °F | Low °F | Precip. inches | Nights ≤ 32°F | Mean mph | Gust 40+ % of days | |
| JanJanuary | 58 | 33 | 1.08 | 12.9 | 9.7 | 23% |
| FebFebruary | 60 | 35 | 1.49 | 5.5 | 10.8 | 22% |
| MarMarch | 67 | 40 | 0.80 | 2.7 | 13.0 | 29% |
| AprApril | 72 | 45 | 0.21 | 0.2 | 14.8 | 45% |
| MayMay | 81 | 53 | 0.13 | 0 | 15.6 | 43% |
| JunJune | 91 | 64 | 0.03 | 0 | 15.1 | 38% |
| JulJuly | 97 | 69 | 0.18 | 0 | 13.3 | 16% |
| AugAugust | 97 | 67 | 0.17 | 0 | 12.0 | 17% |
| SepSeptember | 90 | 61 | 0.10 | 0 | 10.1 | 12% |
| OctOctober | 78 | 49 | 0.42 | 0.1 | 9.8 | 16% |
| NovNovember | 66 | 39 | 0.34 | 3.8 | 9.3 | 20% |
| DecDecember | 57 | 32 | 0.81 | 14.6 | 8.9 | 17% |
| Year | 76 | 49 | 5.76 | 39.7 | No annual wind figure | |
scripts/wind_climatology.py.These are thirty-year averages, not records; the record highs and lows are further down. The best time to visit California City turns the same figures into a verdict for each month.
How hot does California City get?
Average highs reach 81°F in May and 91°F in June, and July and August both average 97°F.1 A normal year has about 110 days of 90°F or more and about 34 of 100°F or more, 31 of them in June, July and August.3
The hottest day in the Mojave station’s record is 118°F, on 5 August 1914, and most of the monthly record highs are more than a century old: eight of the twelve were set between 1908 and 1914.4 In the station’s last twenty years of reports, from 2001 to 2021, the hottest day reached 112°F, on 1 July 2013.5
Nights give some relief: even in July the average low is 69°F.1 For a particular day, the National Weather Service’s HeatRisk is a better guide than any average, because it weighs how unusual the heat is for the time of year and how warm the nights stay.6 The California City weather forecast uses it to rate the coming days for riding and camping.
How cold does it get in winter?
Winter days are mild, with average highs of 57°F in December and 58°F in January, but the nights are cold.1 A normal year has about 40 nights at or below 32°F3, almost all of them from November to March, and December has the most, about 15.1
The gap between the afternoon high and the overnight low averages 25 to 30°F, depending on the month.1 A mild winter afternoon can turn into a freezing night, so pack for both. The coldest reading on record at Mojave is 8°F, on 23 December 1990.45
Record high and low temperatures by month
The hottest and coldest days measured at Mojave in each month, from the Western Regional Climate Center’s summary of the station’s record from 1904 to 2012.4 NOAA’s own yearly extremes for the station, which carry on until it stopped reporting in March 2021, give the same all-time high and low.5
| Month | Record high | Record low |
|---|---|---|
| January | 82°F1909 | 10°F1913 |
| February | 90°F1914 | 16°F1989 |
| March | 89°F1966 | 17°F1971 |
| April | 99°F1914 | 27°F1972 |
| May | 104°F2003 | 32°F1908 |
| June | 112°F1914 | 38°F1967 |
| July | 117°F1914 | 43°F1979 |
| August | 118°F1914 | 48°F1909 |
| September | 110°F1908 | 31°F1909 |
| October | 100°F1980 | 22°F1971 |
| November | 96°F1914 | 13°F1979 |
| December | 79°F1977 | 8°F1990 |
How much rain falls, and does it snow?
It is very dry. A normal year brings about 5.76 inches of precipitation3, and December to March bring 73% of it. February is the wettest month, at 1.49 inches, and June the driest, at 0.03.1
Average precipitation, inches, month by month
Snow is rare: about 1.2 inches in a normal year3, all of it from December to March.1
When is it windy?
Spring into early summer is the windy season. At the Mojave airport between 2016 and 2025 the windiest months were April to June, averaging 14.8 to 15.6 mph, and April was the gustiest: 45% of its days saw a gust of 40 mph or more. December was the calmest month, at 8.9 mph.2
Edwards Air Force Base, about 16 miles south-southeast of the city, is calmer than Mojave in every month.2 The Western Regional Climate Center’s averages for it run from 8.2 mph in December to 13.8 mph in June, with a year-round average of 10.8 mph7, and give the prevailing wind as southwest in every month but November.8 The California City wind forecast page has both stations month by month, and what the speeds mean on a bike and in a tent.
Where do these figures come from?
California City has no long-running NOAA climate station of its own. The nearest one with official 1991–2020 normals is at Mojave, about 11 miles west-southwest, at 2,735 feet1; the city itself sits at about 2,405 feet.9 Treat its figures as close rather than exact.
The Mojave airport’s wind figures, and the comparison with Edwards, were computed by this site from NOAA’s hourly records2; the Edwards monthly averages are the Western Regional Climate Center’s published table for 1996–2006.7 The records are the station’s own readings as the Western Regional Climate Center and NOAA’s regional climate centers publish them.45
Averages are for planning a season, not a weekend. For the days ahead, the California City, CA weather forecast is read from the National Weather Service when the page loads.
Sources
Every date, figure and name above traces to one of these. If something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and it will be fixed.
- 1.U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, monthly: Mojave, CA (USC00045756). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.Average highs and lows, precipitation, snowfall and freezing nights by month.
- 2.Integrated Surface Database (Global Hourly). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.Hourly wind and gust reports from Mojave (KMHV, 72295303183) and Edwards AFB (KEDW, 72381023114), 2016–2025, summarised by this site's scripts/wind_climatology.py.
- 3.U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, annual and seasonal: Mojave, CA (USC00045756). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.Days of 90°F and 100°F or more, and freezing nights, per year and per season.
- 4.Period of Record General Climate Summary – Temperature: Mojave, California (045756). Western Regional Climate Center (NOAA Regional Climate Center), data 1904–2012, table updated 31 October 2012.The highest and lowest temperatures on record at the Mojave station in each month, with their dates.
- 5.Mojave (045756): highest and lowest temperature each year, period of record. NOAA Regional Climate Centers, Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), data 1904 to March 2021.The same all-time high and low as the WRCC table, and the years after it; the station's record ends on 3 March 2021.
- 6.NWS HeatRisk. National Weather Service.The five HeatRisk categories and who each one affects.
- 7.Average Wind Speeds – MPH. Western Regional Climate Center (NOAA Regional Climate Center), data 1996–2006.
- 8.Prevailing Wind Direction. Western Regional Climate Center (NOAA Regional Climate Center), data 1992–2002.
- 9.California City, California. Wikipedia.The city's coordinates and its elevation of 2,405 feet.