Climate
| Bend, Oregon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Climate chart (explanation) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Bend's climate is typical of the high desert with cool nights and sunny days, classified as semi-arid (Köppen BSk). Annual precipitation averages 11.7 in (300 mm), with an annual average snowfall of 27.6 inches (70.1 cm). The winter season in Bend provides a mean temperature of 31.2 °F (−0.4 °C) in both December and January. Nighttime temperatures are not much lower than daytime highs during the winter. According to the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map, annually, the lowest nighttime temperature is typically -5 to -10 °F (-20.6 to -23.3 °C).
Central Oregon summers are marked by their very large diurnal temperature ranges, with typical daily temperatures ranging from 46 to 81 °F (8 to 27 °C). Hard frosts are not unheard of during the summer months. Autumn usually brings warm, dry days and cooler nights, and Bend is known for its annual Indian summer. According to the Western Regional Climate Center of the Desert Research Institute, the mean of the monthly average maximum temperatures in July, the hottest month in Bend, between 1928 and 2006 was 82.1 °F (27.8 °C).
Bend's growing season is short; according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service, in half of the years between 1971 and 2000, the USDA weather station in Bend recorded the last below-freezing temperatures after July 3 and the first below-freezing temperatures before August 31.
| Climate data for Bend, Oregon | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °F (°C) | 67 (19) |
73 (23) |
78 (26) |
86 (30) |
93 (34) |
99 (37) |
104 (40) |
102 (39) |
100 (38) |
90 (32) |
77 (25) |
66 (19) |
104 (40) |
| Average high °F (°C) | 39.7 (4.3) |
44.1 (6.7) |
50.6 (10.3) |
57.4 (14.1) |
64.9 (18.3) |
72.8 (22.7) |
80.7 (27.1) |
80.6 (27.0) |
72.4 (22.4) |
61.7 (16.5) |
46.3 (7.9) |
39.6 (4.2) |
59.2 (15.1) |
| Average low °F (°C) | 22.6 (−5.2) |
24.7 (−4.1) |
27.2 (−2.7) |
30 (−1) |
35.6 (2.0) |
41.2 (5.1) |
46.2 (7.9) |
45.6 (7.6) |
38.6 (3.7) |
32.2 (0.1) |
27.6 (−2.4) |
22.7 (−5.2) |
32.9 (0.5) |
| Record low °F (°C) | −26 (−32) |
−26 (−32) |
−6 (−21) |
9 (−13) |
13 (−11) |
23 (−5) |
27 (−3) |
27 (−3) |
16 (−9) |
3 (−16) |
−14 (−26) |
−24 (−31) |
−26 (−32) |
| Precipitation inches (mm) | 1.76 (44.7) |
1.13 (28.7) |
0.92 (23.4) |
0.70 (17.8) |
0.90 (22.9) |
0.75 (19.1) |
0.62 (15.7) |
0.60 (15.2) |
0.49 (12.4) |
0.62 (15.7) |
1.46 (37.1) |
1.78 (45.2) |
11.73 (297.9) |
| Snowfall inches (cm) | 7.0 (17.8) |
5.4 (13.7) |
3.0 (7.6) |
0.9 (2.3) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0.3 (0.8) |
4.7 (11.9) |
6.2 (15.7) |
27.6 (70.1) |
| Avg. precipitation days | 9.9 | 8.8 | 7.3 | 6.5 | 5.9 | 4.6 | 3.7 | 4 | 4.1 | 4.6 | 9 | 9.7 | 78.1 |
| Avg. snowy days | 4.9 | 4.0 | 2.0 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.3 | 2.1 | 4.4 | 18.4 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 139.0 | 169.0 | 245.0 | 289.0 | 313.0 | 340.0 | 395.0 | 395.0 | 323.0 | 243.0 | 170.0 | 123.0 | 3,144.0 |
| Source: NOAA | |||||||||||||
| Parameter | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean number of days
Max 90 or more |
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.0 | 5.5 | 5.9 | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13.8 |
| Min 32 or less | 25.6 | 23.4 | 24.4 | 19.2 | 11.4 | 3.1 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 6.8 | 16.1 | 21.3 | 26.1 | 178.5 |
| Max 32 or less | 4.8 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 4.3 | 13.7 |
| Min 0 or less | 1.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.4 | 1.1 | 3.4 |
Read more about this topic: Bend, Oregon, Geography
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