Climate and average weather in Los Banos

In Los Banos, the summers are sweltering, dry, and clear and the winters are cool and partly cloudy.

Best: late March to late May

Over the course of the year, the temperature in Los Banos typically varies from 42°F to 94°F, and is rarely below 35°F or above 102°F. July is the hottest month of the year, while December is the coldest.

Based on the travel score, the best times of year to visit Los Banos for warm-weather activities are from late March to late May and late September to mid November.

Hottest
Jul
94°
Coldest
Dec
42°
Wettest
Jan
2.7 in
Driest
Aug
0.0 in
Rain / yr
12.2 in
43 wet days
Daylight
9.5–14.5 h
shortest–longest
Elevation
118 ft
37.1°N
Clearest
Aug
9% cloud

Los Banos is city in Merced County, California, United States.

Density
1,430/km²
people per km²
Founded
1907

Air quality: WHO Ambient Air Quality Database. Density & description: Wikidata (CC0), GeoNames.

Los Banos weather by month, at a glance

The whole year in one picture — sky, rain, humidity, temperature and travel score. Click any band to jump to its full chart.

Each stripe is one measure across the whole year, stacked so a single day reads top to bottom. The sky band runs overcast grey on top down to clear blue at the base — more blue means sunnier — followed by the rainfall curve, the humidity band, a temperature strip that tints each stretch of the year by how warm its average high is, and the travel-score line at the foot. Scan straight down any date to read that day across every measure at once; the score climbs highest around late March to late May.

Temperature through the year

Average highAverage lowShaded bands: 10–90% of days

Daily average highs and lows in Los Banos, from 1991–2020 of climate data. The shaded bands show the range most days fall in — 10th to 90th percentile.

The hot season lasts 4.0 months, from May 29 to September 26, with daily high temperatures above 85°F. The hottest month of the year in Los Banos is July, with an average high of 94°F and low of 65°F.

The cool season lasts 3.4 months, from November 20 to March 1, with daily high temperatures below 65°F. The coldest month of the year in Los Banos is December, with an average low of 42°F and high of 59°F.

Days typically run about 23°F warmer than nights, with the widest day–night swing (around 29°F) in July.

40°60°80°100°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Avg high (°F)Avg low (°F)
Jan5943
Feb6345
Mar6847
Apr7551
May8356
Jun8961
Jul9465
Aug9364
Sep8861
Oct7855
Nov6747
Dec5942

How hot and cold Los Banos really feels

Feels-like highFeels-like lowactual air temp

The felt-temperature range through the year — heat index on the day's high (summer humidity), wind chill on the night's low (winter wind). The dashed lines are the plain thermometer; the gap is how much hotter or colder it really feels.

On the hottest afternoons, once humidity is folded in, Los Banos feels like about 94°F (around July 20). About 85 days a year carry some heat stress, peaking in July.

40°60°80°JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Feels-like high (°F)Air high (°F)Feels-like low (°F)Air low (°F)
Jan59594043
Feb63634245
Mar68684547
Apr75755051
May83835656
Jun89896161
Jul94946565
Aug93936464
Sep88886161
Oct78785555
Nov67674647
Dec59594042

Average hourly temperature in Los Banos

A compact picture of the whole year, hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled average temperature. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

Read left to right for the day of the year and top to bottom for the hour of the day; the color is the modeled temperature, cool blues through to hot reds on the same scale as the other charts. A vertical slice is a single day's swing — coolest just before dawn, warmest in the mid-afternoon — while a horizontal slice follows one hour across the seasons. The darker overlay marks night and the lighter one the twilight around sunrise and sunset. Colors run warmest on July afternoons, near 94°F, and coldest before dawn in December, near 42°F.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM

Los Banos weather by month

Every month at a glance. Click a month for its detailed page.

MonthHigh / Low (°F)Rainfall (inches)Wet daysDaylight (hours)Travel score
Jan59° / 43°2.77.79.74.8
Feb63° / 45°2.3810.65.8
Mar68° / 47°2.06.911.77.0
Apr75° / 51°0.94.112.98.0
May83° / 56°0.42.1147.6
Jun89° / 61°0.10.514.55.4
Jul94° / 65°0.00.214.33.8
Aug93° / 64°0.00.113.44.3
Sep88° / 61°0.10.412.36.1
Oct78° / 55°0.52118.5
Nov67° / 47°1.04.2107.2
Dec59° / 42°2.16.99.54.9

Chance of rain

How likely it is to rain on a typical day, and how that shifts across the wetter and drier seasons.

Los Banos gets about 12.2 in of precipitation a year. On a typical day the chance of rain is mostly dry, but that rises and falls sharply with the seasons.

The wetter season lasts 5.4 months, from around Nov 8 to Apr 21, peaking in February at about 30% chance on a given day. The drier stretch runs the rest of the year, bottoming out around Jul 31.

January is the wettest month by volume, with 2.7 in over about 8 wet days; August is the driest, with 0.0 in.

0%10%20%30%40%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecwetterdrierwettermostly drysome rainoften wetFeb 18 · 30%Jul 31 · 0%
Rain on a day (%)Rain days
Jan258
Feb288
Mar227
Apr144
May72
Jun21
Jul10
Aug00
Sep20
Oct62
Nov144
Dec227

Monthly rainfall

Over a full year, Los Banos collects about 12.2 in of rain across 43 wet days — roughly 1.0 in in an average month.

It doesn’t fall evenly. January is the wettest month with 2.7 in, while August is the driest at just 0.0 in. The three wettest months alone bring about 59% of the year’s total.

00.511.522.533.5JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec2.72.32.00.90.40.10.00.00.10.51.02.1
Rainfall (in)Rain days
Jan2.78
Feb2.38
Mar2.07
Apr0.94
May0.42
Jun0.11
Jul0.00
Aug0.00
Sep0.10
Oct0.52
Nov1.04
Dec2.17

Clouds and sunshine

ClearMostly clearPartly cloudyMostly cloudyOvercast

How often the daytime sky is clear, partly cloudy or overcast.

In Los Banos, the average share of the sky covered by clouds shows significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year begins around May 8 and lasts for 5.8 months, ending around November 1. The clearest month is August, when the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy 95% of the time on average.

The cloudier part of the year begins around November 2 and lasts for 6.1 months, ending around May 7. The cloudiest month is January, when it is overcast or mostly cloudy 49% of the time.

0%100%10%90%20%80%30%70%40%60%50%50%60%40%70%30%80%20%90%10%100%0%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecAug 29 · 96%Jan 4 · 49%clearmostly clearpartly cloudymostly cloudyovercastcloudierclearercloudier
Clearer (%)Cloudier (%)
Jan5149
Feb5446
Mar5644
Apr6634
May7723
Jun8911
Jul946
Aug955
Sep946
Oct8317
Nov6634
Dec5446

Daylight, sunrise and sunset

DaylightNight

Hours of daylight through the year, with sunrise and sunset times.

The gold band is daylight — sunrise runs along its lower edge, sunset along the upper — so it widens toward summer and pinches toward winter, with night the dark area above and below. The longest day, around June 8, brings about 14 h 30 min of light; the shortest, around January 1, only 9 h 30 min — a swing of roughly 5 hours.

12 AM4 AM8 AM12 PM4 PM8 PM12 AMJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)Sunrise (AM)Sunset (PM)
Jan9.77:215:04
Feb10.67:005:36
Mar11.76:226:04
Apr12.95:356:32
May14.05:006:59
Jun14.54:487:20
Jul14.35:007:18
Aug13.45:256:50
Sep12.35:516:05
Oct11.06:175:19
Nov10.06:494:48
Dec9.57:164:44

Sunny days

How many genuinely sunny days each month brings — days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — banded into plain-language zones.

Los Banos averages about 19 sunny days a month — counting the days the sky stays clear or mostly clear — with a clear seasonal swing between 11 and 28 days.

The sunnier stretch runs 5.5 months, from around May 18 to Nov 1. The sunniest month is September, with roughly 27 sunny days (brilliant).

The greyest month is January, down near 11 sunny days — about 58% fewer than the September peak.

051015202530JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecgreyersunniergreyergloomymixedbrightbrilliantSep 228 daysJan 511 days
Sunny daysSky
Jan11Mixed
Feb11Mixed
Mar13Mixed
Apr15Bright
May20Bright
Jun25Brilliant
Jul28Brilliant
Aug28Brilliant
Sep27Brilliant
Oct23Bright
Nov16Bright
Dec13Mixed

Humidity comfort

DryComfortableHumidMuggyOppressiveMiserable

Share of days at each humidity comfort level, based on the dew point — the measure that tracks how muggy it actually feels.

Humidity comfort is graded by the dew point — the temperature at which the air would be fully saturated — because it tracks how muggy it actually feels far better than relative humidity does. A low dew point feels dry and crisp; a high one feels sticky and oppressive no matter the reading on a humidity gauge.

In Los Banos, the air stays dry or comfortable essentially all year. Even in August, the muggiest month, it feels humid or worse only about 8% of the time — humidity is not something you need to plan around here.

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecJan 12 · 100%Aug 2 · 91%comfortabledrycomfortablehumidcomfortable
Dry (%)Comfortable (%)Humid (%)Muggy (%)
Jan99100
Feb99100
Mar98200
Apr99100
May97300
Jun891100
Jul672940
Aug573571
Sep663031
Oct881110
Nov98200
Dec99100

Wind

Average wind speed through the year, banded into plain-language speed zones so a number reads as 'breezy' or 'calm' without knowing the scale.

This is the average sustained wind speed at the standard 10 metres above open ground — the steady flow a weather station reports, not the sharper gusts that come and go, which can run half again as fast. It's the number that says whether a place is generally breezy or calm.

Across the year, average wind speed in Los Banos is typically calm, near 5 mph, and varies little with the seasons.

The windier part of the year lasts 5.2 months, from around Mar 20 to Aug 24. The windiest month is June, averaging about 6 mph (calm).

The calmer part of the year runs from around Aug 25 to Mar 19, with November the calmest month at about 4 mph.

0510JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDeccalmerwindiercalmercalmlight breezeJun 5 · 6 mphNov 9 · 4 mph
Wind speed (mph)Feels
Jan4calm
Feb4calm
Mar5calm
Apr5calm
May6calm
Jun6calm
Jul5calm
Aug5calm
Sep4calm
Oct4calm
Nov4calm
Dec4calm

Best time to visit Los Banos

TravelBeach/poolTemperatureCloudsPrecipitation

To characterize how pleasant the weather is in Los Banos throughout the year, we compute two travel scores — one for general sightseeing, one for beach and pool weather.

Around mid May, Los Banos is still near the tail of its best-weather window — great conditions with the peak-season crowds already thinning.

Inferred from the travel-score curve; month-by-month visitor numbers are a planned addition.

The travel score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 64°F and 82°F. Based on this score, the best times of year to visit Los Banos for general outdoor tourist activities run from mid March to late May and again from late September to mid November, with a peak score in the third week of October.

0246810JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebest timetravel scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationOct 21 · 8.8

The travel score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

Travel score (0–10)Rating
Jan4.9fair
Feb5.8good
Mar7.0good
Apr8.0ideal
May7.6ideal
Jun5.4fair
Jul3.8fair
Aug4.3fair
Sep6.2good
Oct8.4ideal
Nov7.2good
Dec4.9fair

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with daytime highs between 75°F and 93°F. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Los Banos for hot-weather activities is from late April to late October, with a peak score in the last week of September.

024681012JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecbest timebeach/pool scoretemperaturecloudsprecipitationSep 26 · 9.1

The beach/pool score (filled area), and its constituents: the temperature score (red line), the cloud cover score (blue line), and the precipitation score (green line).

What to pack for Los Banos, by month

EssentialRecommendedOptional

Month by month, what's worth putting in the bag — from the temperature range, rain chance, sun and wind. Tap a month for a quick packing note.

For a warm-season trip around July (highs near 94°F), the essentials are light clothes and sun protection. In the cold season around December (highs near 59°F), pack a warm layer.

Light clothing
Warm layer
Winter coat
Rain gear
Sun protection
Windbreaker

In July, Los Banos sees daytime highs around 94°F and nights near 65°F. Pack light clothes and sun protection.

UV index (midday) in Los Banos by month

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Clear-sky midday UV index through the year, shaded by the WHO exposure levels — how much sun protection each month calls for.

Under clear skies, the midday UV index in Los Banos peaks around June 19 at about 10 (extreme) — sunscreen, a hat and midday shade are essential. It bottoms out near December 14 at about 2 (moderate).

The index reaches 3 or more — the level where the WHO recommends sun protection — in 9 months of the year.

025710JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecModerateHighVery highVery highHighModerateJun 19UV 10Dec 14UV 2
UV index (midday)Level
Jan2Moderate
Feb4Moderate
Mar4Moderate
Apr7High
May8Very high
Jun10Extreme
Jul10Very high
Aug10Very high
Sep7High
Oct5High
Nov2Moderate
Dec2Moderate

Average hourly UV index in Los Banos

LowModerateHighVery highExtreme

Modeled clear-sky UV for every hour of every day — when in the day sun protection actually matters.

The whole year hour by hour: each column is a day, each row an hour, and the color is the modeled clear-sky UV index — the midday peak scaled down as the sun sits lower in the sky. Darker overlays mark night, lighter ones the civil-twilight hours around sunrise and sunset.

UV falls off far faster than brightness as the sun drops, so even in June the burn window is concentrated in the middle of the day: about 8.5 hours a day reach index 3 (protection recommended), and 6 hours reach 6 or more. Mornings and late afternoons stay comparatively gentle year round.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec12 AM2 AM4 AM6 AM8 AM10 AM12 PM2 PM4 PM6 PM8 PM10 PM12 AM
UV ≥ 3 (h/day)UV ≥ 6 (h/day)
Jan00
Feb30
Mar4.50
Apr6.52
May84.5
Jun8.56
Jul8.55.5
Aug85
Sep6.53
Oct50
Nov00
Dec00

Air quality in Los Banos by month

GoodModeratePoorUnhealthyVery unhealthy

Average fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) through the year — so you can see which months the air is worst, not just the yearly average.

Air quality in Los Banos is worst in August — around 19 µg/m³ PM2.5 (moderate), about 3.8× the cleanest month (June, 5 µg/m³).

Modeled monthly averages (CAMS reanalysis, 2015–2024).

0102030JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecGoodModerateGoodAug 1918 µg/m³Jun 125 µg/m³
PM2.5 (µg/m³)Level
Jan8Good
Feb8Good
Mar9Good
Apr7Good
May6Good
Jun5Good
Jul9Good
Aug19Moderate
Sep14Moderate
Oct11Good
Nov8Good
Dec7Good
Almanac & agriculture

Growing season

Chance of a frost-free dayFrost-free year round

Los Banos is frost-free year round — even the coldest nights rarely reach freezing, so there is no start or end to the growing season.

0%25%50%75%100%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecfrost-free year round
Frost-free chance (%)Frost nights
Jan990
Feb1000
Mar1000
Apr1000
May1000
Jun1000
Jul1000
Aug1000
Sep1000
Oct1000
Nov1000
Dec980

Growing degree days

Degree days (base 50°F)Frost-free shaded

Growing degree days tally heat above 50°F: each day adds however many degrees its average temperature runs over that threshold, and cold days add nothing. Los Banos banks about 5,386 degree days a year, and the running total — which growers use to time plantings and predict maturity — climbs fastest around July.

02,0004,0006,000JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Growing degree days (°F·days)
Jan25
Feb105
Mar246
Apr385
May596
Jun753
Jul914
Aug887
Sep727
Oct516
Nov210
Dec24

Solar energy

Average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground, banded into brightness zones so the number means something at a glance.

Solar energy is how much sunlight actually reaches the ground each day, measured in kilowatt-hours per square metre (kWh/m²) — the combined effect of how long the sun is up, how high it climbs, and how much cloud gets in the way. It's the raw fuel a solar panel has to work with: for scale, 1 kWh/m² a day is dim and wintry, while 7+ is desert-bright.

Los Banos receives about 5.5 kWh/m² a day of solar energy on average — bright — with a clear seasonal swing between 2.4 and 8.4 kWh/m².

The brighter stretch of the year lasts 6.2 months, from around Mar 26 to Sep 29. The brightest month is June, averaging about 8.3 kWh/m² (intense).

The dimmest month is December, down near 2.4 kWh/m² — roughly 71% less than the June peak.

0123456789JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecdimmerbrighterdimmerdimmoderatebrightintenseJun 248.4 kWhDec 162.4 kWh
Solar energy (kWh/m²)Level
Jan2.6Moderate
Feb3.6Moderate
Mar5.0Bright
Apr6.5Intense
May7.6Intense
Jun8.3Intense
Jul8.2Intense
Aug7.5Intense
Sep6.2Intense
Oct4.5Bright
Nov3.1Moderate
Dec2.4Moderate

Where is Los Banos?

Los Banos sits at 37.1°N, 120.8°W, 118 ft above sea level, in United States. The nearest listed city is Atwater, 24 mi away.

Topography around Los Banos

How much the land rises and falls, and what covers it, within 2, 10 and 50 miles of Los Banos.

Within 2 miles, the terrain around Los Banos has only modest variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 56 ft around an average of 118 ft above sea level; within 10 miles, significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 1,007 ft; within 50 miles, very significant variations in elevation — a maximum elevation change of 5,269 ft.

The land around Los Banos is covered by artificial surfaces (42%) and cropland (26%) within 2 miles, grassland (44%) and cropland (39%) within 10 miles, and grassland (50%), trees (24%) and cropland (20%) within 50 miles.

2 miles
56 ft
10 miles
1,007 ft
50 miles
5,269 ft
treesshrubsgrasslandcroplandartificial surfacesbare terrainwaterwetland
Nearby: Atwater 24 mi · Merced 26 mi · Turlock 30 mi · Patterson 32 mi · Chowchilla 33 mi · Hollister 34 mi · Ceres 37 mi · Gilroy 40 mi

United States travel facts

Power plugs
Type A / B
120 V · 60 Hz
Prices
≈ 100% of US
price level, 2025
GDP per capita
$90,027
2025
Happiness
6.8 / 10
World Happiness, 2025
Safe drinking water
98%
of population, 2024
Homicide rate
5.8
per 100k, 2023
Road deaths
12.7
per 100k/yr, 2019
Income group
High
World Bank
Religion
Protestant 47%unaffiliated 23%Roman Catholic 21%Jewish 2%

Sources: World Bank, US State Department, World Happiness Report, WHO/UNICEF, EF EPI, CIA World Factbook.

Data sources

Temperature, precipitation, cloud, humidity, wind and solar figures are a 1991–2020 climatology for Los Banos (37.0583°, -120.8499°, elevation 118 ft), computed from hourly ERA5 reanalysis — contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information. Sun figures are astronomical calculations, not observations. City data © GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Map outlines from Natural Earth (public domain); interactive map © Google. UV index is derived from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) clear-sky UV data — contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information. Monthly air-quality (PM2.5) seasonality is from the CAMS EAC4 reanalysis (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service), scaled to the WHO annual mean where available. Topography is sampled from the Copernicus DEM GLO-90 elevation model (© ESA/Airbus) and ESA WorldCover 2021 land cover (CC BY 4.0).