The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days San Francisco has
recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far
they sit beyond a normal day.
Based on 31 years of daily weather observations (1994–present), from the San Miguel/Papalon station 29 km away. Updated through August 2025 — an all-time extreme only changes when a more extreme day actually occurs, so some dates are old. That is normal, not stale data.
The four kinds of extreme
The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days San Francisco
has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year
looks like.
🔥Hottest day
113°FJul 26, 2017
The three most extreme on record
1113°FJul 26, 2017
2111°FMay 22, 2020
3109°FFeb 25, 1998
❄️Coldest night
56°FJan 16, 1996
About 13°F colder than a normal January night in San Francisco (typical low near 69°F).
The three most extreme on record
156°FJan 16, 1996
257°FDec 16, 2010
357°FDec 17, 2010
🌧️Most rain in one day
5.28 inMay 25, 2019
The three most extreme on record
15.28 inMay 25, 2019
24.48 inOct 7, 2018
34.40 inAug 31, 2003
In plain terms
In a normal year, San Francisco's warmest days reach the high 90s°F and its coldest nights drop to the high 60s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 113°F and as low as 56°F. A single day has delivered over 5 inches of rain. Those are the outer edges worth knowing if you are moving here, planning a trip, or thinking about a house.
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — 1991–2020 normals computed from 24 years of daily observations at Amapala/los Pelonas, a weather station, about 66 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.