Columbus weather by month: averages, rainfall & climate trends
Ohio's capital works through the full Midwestern four seasons, with muggy summers and cold, cloudy winters, yet sits far enough inland to dodge both lake-effect snow and the coast's big storms. Columbus weather by month: average temperatures, rainfall, extremes and how the climate has changed since 1940.
Today vs average
+2.7°Fhigh above average
How it's changed
+3.5°Faverage temperature, 2016–2025 vs 1940–1949average temperature vs 1940–4982frost days a year now (2016–2025) · 107 in the 1940sfrost days a year · 107 in the 1940s36days above 86°F a year now (2016–2025) · 22 in the 1940sdays above 86°F · 22 in the 1940s+3.5°F vs the 1940s · see how it's changed →Weather by montha typical year, averaged over the full recordJanuary, rain 3.3 incheshigh 37°low 23°February, rain 3.1 incheshigh 40°low 25°March, rain 4.1 incheshigh 51°low 33°April, rain 4.2 incheshigh 63°low 43°May, rain 4.3 incheshigh 73°low 53°June, rain 3.8 incheshigh 81°low 62°July, rain 3.7 incheshigh 84°low 66°August, rain 3.0 incheshigh 83°low 65°September, rain 2.8 incheshigh 77°low 58°October, rain 2.7 incheshigh 65°low 46°November, rain 3.4 incheshigh 52°low 36°December, rain 3.5 incheshigh 41°low 27°wettest month May, 4.3 inches · 42.0 inches a yearsee month by month →Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.Right now
53.2°
On this date: October 19
High above average · +2.7°F
- Highest since 1940: 82.7° · 1953
- Lowest since 1940: 27.0° · 1992
- One year ago: 75° / 51°
Every October 19 in history, coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each October 19 on record (n = 86). Outlined dots are today's forecast.
Area we sample
Each city's history comes from one ERA5 grid cell, about 28 km across, shown by the dashed box. Near mountains or coasts, conditions can vary across the cell.
Location & data
Historical weather for Columbus is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 39.96°N, 83.00°W, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 39.96°N, 83.00°W
- Time zone
- America/New York
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
17 of the last 30 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +2.2°F.
Each bar is one day, from morning low to afternoon high. Warm-colored bars are days whose mean ran above average; cool bars ran below. The dot inside the bar is the daily mean. The shaded band is the typical 10–90% range expected for that date. Average = the day's mean temperature averaged across every year of record (1940–2026) for that calendar date.
This date over the years
One dot per year, showing the mean temperature on this calendar date. Dots are warmer or cooler than the long-term average (dashed line); the shaded band is the typical 10–90% range, and the highlighted dot is today's forecast. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Weather by month
Average temperatures and rainfall for each month: a typical year, from the full record.Climate overview
Columbus sits squarely in the middle of Ohio, on the gently rolling till plains of the state's interior. Its humid continental climate (Köppen Dfa, close to the subtropical Cfa line) brings warm, muggy summers and cold, fairly dry winters. The city is too far south and west to catch much lake-effect snow off Lake Erie, though the northern lakes still feed the long grey overcast that settles in for much of the winter.
Snowfall is modest by Great Lakes standards, and Columbus also lies outside the usual track of the coastal storms that bury cities to the east. The real drama comes in the warmer half of the year, in the thunderstorms, hail and occasional tornado typical of the Midwest; an F2 twister cut through the area in October 2006. Floods, blizzards and ice storms turn up from time to time without ever dominating the record.
The year peaks in July, at around 84.0°F by mid-afternoon, with nights around 66.2°F. On about 50 nights a year, the temperature never drops below 68°F. At the other extreme, January brings afternoon highs of about 36.6°F and typical overnight lows of 22.6°F. Frost shows up on around 80 mornings a year.
In total, Columbus averages about 42.0 inches of precipitation a year; May is usually the wettest month (4.3 inches) and October the driest (2.7 inches).
The record here starts in 1940, and since then the annual mean in Columbus has climbed 3.5°F from the first ten years to the last ten. The count of days past 86°F has risen from roughly 20 a year to 35 between the record's first and last decades.
Climate graph (climograph)
July is the warmest month, January the coolest: a yearly swing of 46°F. Wettest month: May (~4.3 in). Whole year averages ~42.0 inches of rain.
Bars = average monthly rainfall (right axis). Lines = average daily high and low (left axis). Average = each month's value averaged across every year of record (1940–2026).
Rainy days by month
About 108 rainy days a year: most in May (~11), fewest in October (~7).
Bars = average number of days with ≥ 0.08 in per month. Hover for the monthly rainfall total.
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre: the record's own proxy for how sunny the month is.
Columbus month by month: what to expect
Typical conditions for each month, averaged across the full record (since 1940). Daylight is the time from sunrise to sunset. Highest and Lowest are the most extreme values in the ERA5 dataset (modelled since 1940), so they can differ from official weather-station readings.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Rain | Rainy days | Daylight | Highest | Lowest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36.6° | 22.6° | 3.3 in | 9 | 9.5 h | 73.1° (1950) | −23.2° (1994) |
| February | 40.4° | 24.8° | 3.1 in | 8 | 10.5 h | 75.9° (2017) | −12.7° (2015) |
| March | 50.8° | 33.1° | 4.1 in | 10 | 11.7 h | 84.4° (2012) | −9.1° (1943) |
| April | 62.9° | 43.3° | 4.2 in | 11 | 13.1 h | 86.9° (1990) | 15.9° (1982) |
| May | 72.6° | 53.4° | 4.3 in | 11 | 14.2 h | 92.5° (1962) | 25.7° (1966) |
| June | 80.8° | 62.3° | 3.8 in | 10 | 14.8 h | 101.6° (1988) | 37.5° (1972) |
| July | 84.0° | 66.2° | 3.7 in | 10 | 14.6 h | 102.5° (1988) | 47.8° (1968) |
| August | 82.8° | 64.6° | 3.0 in | 9 | 13.6 h | 99.4° (1983) | 41.2° (1965) |
| September | 76.7° | 57.6° | 2.8 in | 7 | 12.2 h | 98.5° (1954) | 33.0° (1974) |
| October | 65.3° | 46.5° | 2.7 in | 7 | 10.9 h | 92.5° (2019) | 21.4° (1952) |
| November | 52.0° | 36.5° | 3.4 in | 8 | 9.7 h | 80.1° (2016) | −7.2° (1958) |
| December | 40.7° | 27.4° | 3.5 in | 9 | 9.2 h | 73.4° (1982) | −17.9° (1989) |
How it's changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +3.5°F.
Each vertical stripe is one year. Color encodes how much that year's annual mean differed from the long-term average. Average = each year's annual mean compared to the average of all years (1940–2026). cooler ← → warmer
Annual mean temperature
Long-term trend: +0.37°F per decade.
One point per year, showing the temperature averaged across the whole year. The dashed line is the least-squares long-term trend. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Seasonal warming
Mar–May is warming fastest: +0.55°F per decade.
Each faint line is one three-month period's average per year; the bold dashed line is its long-term trend. Different parts of the year often warm at different rates. Based on ERA5 reanalysis: modelled estimates, not station readings.
Hot days vs frost days
Days ≥ 86°F per year: 21.9 early in the record → 36.3 recently. Frost days: 107 → 82.
Thin lines are raw yearly counts; thick lines are the smoothed trend that removes year-to-year noise. The hot-day threshold is auto-picked per city so the line actually moves. Average = a centered 5-year rolling average to smooth weather noise.
Yearly hot & cold extremes
Hottest day since 1940 in 1988, coldest in 1994: 102.5°F / −23.2°F.
One point per year: the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~42.0 in/year on average. Last decade: +11% vs that average. Long-term trend: +0.84 in per decade.
One bar per year of total rainfall. Dashed line is the long-term average. Average = the average annual rainfall across every year of record (1940–2026).
Day-by-day grid
Each tiny square is one calendar day across the full record, about 30,000 days per city. Use the mode switch above the chart: Anomaly colors each day by how far it ran from the historical average for that date (red = warmer, blue = cooler), Daily mean temp shows the absolute mean temperature for the day (useful to see seasons and heatwaves), and Precipitation shows daily rainfall (useful to spot wet/dry seasons and droughts). Average = the long-term average for that calendar date (1940–2026).
Frequently asked questions about Columbus
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How does today's temperature in Columbus compare to the historical average?
How much has Columbus warmed since 1940?
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Weather in nearby cities
- Dayton66°/34°today+3.5°vs average
- Cincinnati66°/35°today+2.9°vs average
- Meads66°/38°today−0.1°vs average
- Akron62°/32°today+2.3°vs average
- Toledo65°/35°today+5.9°vs average
- Cleveland65°/37°today+5.9°vs average
- Fort Wayne64°/35°today+4.3°vs average
- Lexington-Fayette65°/34°today+0.4°vs average
- Lexington64°/35°today−0.3°vs average
- Windsor · Canada64°/38°today+6.6°vs average