How extreme does Ann Arbor's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Ann Arbor has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.

Based on 50+ years of daily weather observations (1971–present), from the Detroit Metro Ap station 34 km away. Updated through May 2026 — 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 Ann Arbor has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day

104°F Jun 25, 1988

That is about 24°F hotter than a normal June afternoon in Ann Arbor (typical high near 80°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 104°F Jun 25, 1988

2 102°F Jul 15, 1977

3 102°F Jul 16, 1988

❄️ Coldest night

-21°F Jan 21, 1984

About 40°F colder than a normal January night in Ann Arbor (typical low near 19°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 -21°F Jan 21, 1984

2 -20°F Jan 19, 1994

3 -18°F Jan 18, 1976

🌧️ Most rain in one day

4.57 in Aug 11, 2014

More rain in a single day than Ann Arbor usually gets in the whole month of August (typical August total about 3.3 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 4.57 in Aug 11, 2014

2 4.34 in Jul 7, 1998

3 3.71 in Sep 11, 2000

⛄ Most snow in one day

18.4 in Dec 1, 1974

Close to a whole typical December's snow in one day (Ann Arbor averages about 9 in across the month).

The three most extreme on record

1 18.4 in Dec 1, 1974

2 13.7 in Feb 1, 2015

3 12.2 in Jan 22, 2005

How hot and cold it gets, month by month

The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.

normal range of daily temperatureshottest ever recordedcoldest ever recorded

Ann Arbor's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — June's 104°F is about 24°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.

In plain terms

In a normal year, Ann Arbor's warmest days reach the mid-80s°F and its coldest nights drop to the high 10s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 104°F and as low as −21°F. A single day has delivered over 5 inches of rain or close to 18 inches of snow. 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 25 years of daily observations at Amherstburg, a weather station, about 57 km from the city centre. The underlying daily records come from NOAA's global station network.

How we build these numbers →

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