How extreme does El Centro's weather get?

The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days El Centro 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 El Centro 2 Ssw station 3 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 El Centro has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.

🔥 Hottest day

122°F Jul 28, 1995

That is about 15°F hotter than a normal July afternoon in El Centro (typical high near 107°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 122°F Jul 28, 1995

2 122°F Jul 29, 1995

3 121°F Jul 9, 2024

❄️ Coldest night

19°F Dec 30, 1991

About 24°F colder than a normal December night in El Centro (typical low near 43°F).

The three most extreme on record

1 19°F Dec 30, 1991

2 20°F Jan 5, 1971

3 20°F Jan 6, 1971

🌧️ Most rain in one day

2.31 in Sep 10, 1976

More rain in a single day than El Centro usually gets in the whole month of September (typical September total about 0.3 in).

The three most extreme on record

1 2.31 in Sep 10, 1976

2 2.30 in Dec 9, 1982

3 2.06 in Oct 9, 1986

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

El Centro's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — July's 122°F is about 15°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, El Centro's warmest days reach the high 100s°F and its coldest nights drop to the low 40s°F. But across the record it has gone as high as 122°F and as low as 19°F. A single day has delivered over 2 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 — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at EL Centro 2 Ssw (NOAA GHCN station USC00042713), about 3 km from the city centre.

How we build these numbers →

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