United States · 1991–2020

Best time to visit
Santa Cruz.

August leads for comfortable weather in Santa Cruz: typically 23.7°C by day, 12.8°C at night, with 1 mm of rain. Based on measured 1991–2020 NOAA station history.

Best comfortAugust

Typical high23.7°C

Typical low12.8°C

Rain in August1 mm

Comfort

August

August · September · July

95climate match

Beach

August

August · September · July

61climate match

Outdoors

May

May · October · April

95climate match

The weakest month is December, scoring 33 against August’s 95 — days reach only 15.8°C, 8° below the 24°C the score treats as ideal, and nights drop to 5.2°C.

Month by month

The whole year,
without the guesswork.

The bars show the comfort score. Day and night temperatures come from daily observed highs and lows; rain is the historical monthly estimate.

Jan

3416.3° / 5.4°

Feb

3917.1° / 6.1°

Mar

5018.6° / 6.9°

Apr

7020.1° / 7.8°

May

8121.3° / 9.6°

Jun

8822.7° / 11°

Jul

9222.9° / 12.6°

Aug

9523.7° / 12.8°

Sep

9424.2° / 11.8°

Oct

8622.7° / 9.9°

Nov

6018.8° / 7.1°

Dec

3315.8° / 5.2°

Monthly climate evidence for Santa Cruz — daylight is calculated from latitude, everything else is measured, sea temperature from the nearest open water 14 km away
Month	Day	Night	Rain	Wet days	Sea	Daylight	Comfort	Coverage
January	16.3°C	5.4°C	165 mm	9.1	12.6°C	9 h 53	34	Strong coverage
February	17.1°C	6.1°C	154 mm	9.1	12.6°C	10 h 46	39	Strong coverage
March	18.6°C	6.9°C	121 mm	9.4	12.5°C	11 h 51	50	Strong coverage
April	20.1°C	7.8°C	55 mm	4.8	12.1°C	13 h 05	70	Strong coverage
May	21.3°C	9.6°C	22 mm	2.6	12.1°C	14 h 07	81	Strong coverage
June	22.7°C	11°C	5 mm	0.8	12.7°C	14 h 41	88	Strong coverage
July	22.9°C	12.6°C	0 mm	0.1	13.8°C	14 h 28	92	Strong coverage
August	23.7°C	12.8°C	1 mm	0.1	14.5°C	13 h 34	95	Strong coverage
September	24.2°C	11.8°C	3 mm	0.6	14.7°C	12 h 22	94	Strong coverage
October	22.7°C	9.9°C	32 mm	2.4	14.4°C	11 h 11	86	Strong coverage
November	18.8°C	7.1°C	79 mm	5.6	13.7°C	10 h 08	60	Strong coverage
December	15.8°C	5.2°C	153 mm	9.1	12.9°C	9 h 38	33	Strong coverage

What has changed

Santa Cruz runs +1.2°C
on the 1961–1990 baseline.

Each bar compares the 2011–2025 daytime average for that month against the same month in 1961–1990, measured at the same station. Months where the older record is too thin to compare are left blank.

Jan

+2.1

Feb

+1.3

Mar

+1.7

Apr

+1.8

May

+1.2

Jun

+0.6

Jul

0.0

Aug

+0.3

Sep

+1.0

Oct

+1.6

Nov

+1.3

Dec

+0.9

August daytime highs, 2011–2021. Last recorded: 23.6°C.

Records at SANTA CRUZ, 1893–2022
Month	Record high	Record low	Wettest day	Wettest / driest month	Years
January	28.9°C16 Jan 2014	-6.7°C20 Jan 1922	176 mm5 Jan 1982	506 mm1909 · driest 0 mm in 2022	129
February	31.7°C23 Feb 1896	-5.6°C13 Feb 1903	127 mm1 Feb 1945	473 mm1998 · driest 0 mm in 2020	129
March	32.2°C18 Mar 1914	-2.2°C7 Mar 1964	106 mm30 Mar 1940	385 mm1983 · driest 0 mm in 2021	129
April	36.1°C21 Apr 2009	-1.7°C8 Apr 1929	95 mm4 Apr 1923	210 mm1967 · driest 0 mm in 2021	128
May	37.8°C14 May 2014	-2.2°C2 May 1917	48 mm24 May 1906	141 mm1915 · driest 0 mm in 1992	128
June	41.1°C24 Jun 1976	1.1°C10 Jun 1901	41 mm4 Jun 2011	60 mm2011 · driest 0 mm in 1893	126
July	40.6°C10 Jul 1959	2.2°C3 Jul 1901	64 mm9 Jul 1974	74 mm1974 · driest 0 mm in 1907	126
August	42.2°C1 Aug 1900	3.3°C11 Aug 1981	19 mm29 Aug 1896	32 mm1976 · driest 0 mm in 1945	128
September	43.3°C3 Sep 2017	-1.1°C13 Sep 1921	81 mm12 Sep 1918	168 mm1918 · driest 0 mm in 1944	129
October	39.4°C5 Oct 1987	-6.7°C31 Oct 1919	80 mm13 Oct 2009	179 mm1899 · driest 0 mm in 1995	129
November	33.3°C9 Nov 1956	-3.3°C24 Nov 1931	129 mm17 Nov 1942	289 mm1950 · driest 0 mm in 1959	129
December	30.6°C3 Dec 1958	-7.2°C23 Dec 1990	116 mm23 Dec 1942	535 mm1955 · driest 1 mm in 1989	129

Typical days per month at SANTA CRUZ, 1991–2020
Month	Days 25°C+	Days 30°C+	Frost nights	Heavy rain (10 mm+)
January	<1	0	2	5
February	1	0	<1	5
March	2	<1	<1	4
April	4	<1	0	2
May	5	<1	0	<1
June	7	1	0	<1
July	7	<1	0	0
August	10	2	0	0
September	12	4	0	0
October	9	3	0	<1
November	2	<1	<1	3
December	<1	0	3	5

How often, not how much — every day in SANTA CRUZ’s record sorted by what it was actually like, rather than averaged
Month	Warm & dry days	Wet days	Washouts	Week with 3+ wet days	Daytime mean has ranged
January	14%	31%	17%	38%	13.7–18.1°C
February	19%	32%	17%	39%	15.0–19.2°C
March	30%	28%	13%	32%	16.1–20.5°C
April	49%	17%	6%	14%	18.0–22.0°C
May	63%	9%	2%	5%	19.8–23.3°C
June	81%	3%	<1%	<1%	21.4–25.0°C
July	87%	<1%	<1%	0%	21.7–25.4°C
August	90%	1%	<1%	<1%	22.0–25.9°C
September	86%	4%	<1%	2%	22.4–27.1°C
October	70%	10%	4%	8%	21.0–25.2°C
November	38%	20%	9%	23%	17.3–21.7°C
December	13%	29%	15%	34%	14.2–18.4°C

A warm and dry day reaches 20°C with under 1 mm of rain; a wet day gets 1 mm or more; a washout gets 10 mm or more. The week column is the share of seven-day stretches in that month, across the station’s whole daily record, that contained three or more wet days — the odds a week-long trip is rained on repeatedly, counted rather than modelled. The last column is the 10th to 90th percentile of that month’s daytime average across individual years: a narrow band means the average is what you will get, a wide one means the average is a midpoint between years that felt quite different.

1894Each stripe is one year’s mean temperature against the 114-year average. Warmest: 2015. Coolest: 1955.2021

The evidence behind this page

Nearby, measured,
and named.

Place identity: GeoNames 5393052
NOAA station: USC00047916 · SANTA CRUZ
Station distance: 3.2 km from the place centre
Climate period: 1991–2020
Minimum month coverage: 27 usable years
Daylight: Calculated from latitude 36.97°, mid-month, sunrise to sunset including refraction. Not a station measurement.
Sea temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1 1991–2020 monthly climatology, nearest open water 14 km from the place centre. A sheltered bay can run warmer than the open sea it is measured from.
Important limit: Historical climate is not a forecast. Nearby stations can miss mountains, coasts, and local microclimates.

These places read the same station, so their numbers are identical — distance from SANTA CRUZ is what differs

Live Oak→Scotts Valley→Capitola→Soquel→Rio Del Mar→Aptos→

Or put two places side by side: Santa Cruz vs Live Oak

Best time to visitSanta Cruz.

August

August

May

The whole year,without the guesswork.

Santa Cruz runs +1.2°Con the 1961–1990 baseline.

Nearby, measured,and named.

Best time to visit
Santa Cruz.

The whole year,
without the guesswork.

Santa Cruz runs +1.2°C
on the 1961–1990 baseline.

Nearby, measured,
and named.