Washington weather by month — averages, rainfall & climate trends
The U.S. capital sits where North meets South, with a humid-subtropical climate that swings from hot, swampy summers to chilly winters and the occasional paralysing snowstorm. Average temperatures and rainfall by month, a climate graph, today's conditions versus the long-term average, and how the climate has shifted since 1940 — all on one page for Washington, United States.
Today vs average
+0.1°Cabout average
How it’s changed
Right now
What it's doing today vs the historical average for this date.
Right now
30.8°
32°20°
34°24°31°22°
28°17°30°18°30°20°
30°19°On this date — July 20
About average
- Record high: 38.4° · 2020
- Record low: 16.1° · 2000
- One year ago: 31.7°
Every July 20 in history — coldest to hottest
Dots show daily highs (top) and lows (bottom) for each July 20 on record (n = 87). 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 Washington is sampled from the ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at 38.90°N, 77.04°W, with daily records since 1940.
- Coordinates
- 38.90°N, 77.04°W
- Time zone
- America/New York
- Period
- 1940–2026
- Data source
- ERA5 (ECMWF)
Last 30 days
22 of the last 31 days were warmer than the historical average for that date. Average difference: +1.6°C.
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 — 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 — what a typical year looks like, from the full record.Climate overview
Washington, D.C. lies on the Potomac River near the head of Chesapeake Bay, on the boundary between humid subtropical and milder oceanic climates (Köppen Cfa). Summers are hot and humid, with frequent afternoon thunderstorms, and winters are chilly with snowfall that varies enormously from one year to the next. Rain is spread fairly evenly through the year, and the city's position lets it draw on both warm, moist air from the south and cold outbreaks from the north.
Coastal storms drive the biggest events. Nor'easters can deliver crippling snow — the 'Snowmageddon' blizzard of February 2010 and the historic Knickerbocker storm of January 1922 rank among the heaviest — while hurricanes that track this far inland usually arrive weakened but can still bring flooding rain. Summer heat waves regularly push the heat index toward uncomfortable extremes.
July brings the year's peak warmth: daily means of 25.9°C, with afternoons typically reaching 31.2°C. On about 80 nights a year, the temperature never drops below 20°C. The coolest month is January, when daily means fall to about 1.6°C and overnight lows sit around -2.0°C. Around 55 days a year dip below freezing.
The yearly total for Washington comes to about 1061 mm; monthly amounts range from 76 mm in February up to 101 mm in July.
The record here starts in 1940, and since then the annual mean in Washington has climbed 1.6°C from the first ten years to the last ten. Days above 30°C have grown noticeably more frequent — from around 45 a year in the first decade to about 70 in the last.
Climate graph (climograph)
July is the warmest month, January the coolest — a yearly swing of 24°C. Wettest month: July (~101 mm). Whole year averages ~1061 mm 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).
Monthly wind
Average daily peak wind at 10 m, by month.
Monthly solar energy
Average daily incoming solar energy in megajoules per square metre — a measured proxy for how sunny the month is.
Washington 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. Record high/low 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 | Daylight | Record high | Record low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6.1° | -2.0° | 81 mm | 9.6 h | 24.5° (1950) | -21.6° (1994) |
| February | 8.0° | -1.0° | 76 mm | 10.5 h | 28.2° (2018) | -21.6° (1979) |
| March | 13.1° | 2.9° | 96 mm | 11.7 h | 31.8° (1998) | -15.4° (2015) |
| April | 19.3° | 8.4° | 88 mm | 13.0 h | 34.9° (2002) | -3.7° (1950) |
| May | 24.4° | 13.7° | 97 mm | 14.1 h | 36.9° (1991) | 0.5° (1947) |
| June | 29.0° | 18.6° | 89 mm | 14.7 h | 40.5° (2012) | 6.7° (1972) |
| July | 31.2° | 21.4° | 101 mm | 14.5 h | 40.7° (1988) | 11.2° (1988) |
| August | 30.0° | 20.5° | 91 mm | 13.5 h | 39.8° (1953) | 8.1° (1986) |
| September | 26.3° | 16.7° | 91 mm | 12.2 h | 39.6° (1953) | 3.8° (1963) |
| October | 20.2° | 10.2° | 79 mm | 11.0 h | 36.2° (2019) | -4.1° (1969) |
| November | 14.0° | 4.7° | 82 mm | 9.8 h | 30.1° (1950) | -9.6° (1955) |
| December | 8.1° | 0.1° | 88 mm | 9.3 h | 25.2° (1998) | -21.3° (1960) |
How it has changed
Year-by-year signals from 1940 to today.Climate stripes
Annual mean shifted from 1940–1949 to 2016–2025 by +1.6°C.
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: +0.20°C per decade.
One point per year — 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
Dec–Feb is warming fastest: +0.25°C 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 ≥ 30°C per year: 45.0 early in the record → 68.9 recently. Frost days: 72 → 57.
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
All-time high in 1988, all-time low in 1994: 40.7°C / -21.6°C.
One point per year — the single hottest and coldest day recorded that year.
Annual rainfall
~1061 mm/year on average. Last decade ran +13% vs that average. Long-term trend: +17 mm 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 — ~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).