Spring Weather in Sacramento California, United States

Daily high temperatures increase by 21°F, from 64°F to 85°F, rarely falling below 56°F or exceeding 96°F.

Daily low temperatures increase by 11°F, from 45°F to 56°F, rarely falling below 38°F or exceeding 62°F.

For reference, on July 18, the hottest day of the year, temperatures in Sacramento typically range from 61°F to 94°F, while on December 30, the coldest day of the year, they range from 39°F to 53°F.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the hourly average spring temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Badajoz, Spain (5,673 miles away); Ma’dabā, Jordan (7,373 miles); and Wundowie, Western Australia, Australia (9,198 miles) are the far-away foreign places with temperatures most similar to Sacramento (view comparison).

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The spring in Sacramento experiences very rapidly decreasing cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy decreasing from 54% to 26%.

The clearest day of the spring is May 31, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 74% of the time.

For reference, on January 11, the cloudiest day of the year, the chance of overcast or mostly cloudy conditions is 56%, while on July 28, the clearest day of the year, the chance of clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy skies is 92%.

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. In Sacramento, the chance of a wet day over the course of the spring is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 30% and ending it at 6%.

For reference, the year's highest daily chance of a wet day is 31% on February 20, and its lowest chance is 0% on July 20.

Rainfall

To show variation within the season and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day.

The average sliding 31-day rainfall during the spring in Sacramento is very rapidly decreasing, starting the season at 3.9 inches, when it rarely exceeds 8.1 inches or falls below 0.8 inches, and ending the season at 0.4 inches, when it rarely exceeds 1.5 inches.

Over the course of the spring in Sacramento, the length of the day is very rapidly increasing. From the start to the end of the season, the length of the day increases by 3 hours, 18 minutes, implying an average daily increase of 2 minutes, 11 seconds, and weekly increase of 15 minutes, 15 seconds.

The shortest day of the spring is March 1, with 11 hours, 23 minutes of daylight and the longest day is May 31, with 14 hours, 41 minutes of daylight.

The latest sunrise of the spring in Sacramento is 7:23 AM on March 10 and the earliest sunrise is 1 hour, 40 minutes earlier at 5:43 AM on May 31.

The earliest sunset is 5:59 PM on March 1 and the latest sunset is 2 hours, 25 minutes later at 8:24 PM on May 31.

Daylight saving time (DST) starts at 3:00 AM on March 10, 2024, shifting sunrise and sunset to be an hour later.

For reference, on June 20, the longest day of the year, the Sun rises at 5:41 AM and sets 14 hours, 52 minutes later, at 8:33 PM, while on December 21, the shortest day of the year, it rises at 7:20 AM and sets 9 hours, 28 minutes later, at 4:48 PM.

The figure below presents a compact representation of the sun's elevation (the angle of the sun above the horizon) and azimuth (its compass bearing) for every hour of every day in the reporting period. The horizontal axis is the day of the year and the vertical axis is the hour of the day. For a given day and hour of that day, the background color indicates the azimuth of the sun at that moment. The black isolines are contours of constant solar elevation.

The figure below presents a compact representation of key lunar data for the spring of 2024. The horizontal axis is the day, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the colored areas indicate when the moon is above the horizon. The vertical gray bars (new Moons) and blue bars (full Moons) indicate key Moon phases. The label associated with each bar indicates the date and time that the phase is obtained, and the companion time labels indicate the rise and set times of the Moon for the nearest time interval in which the moon is above the horizon.

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The chance that a given day will be muggy in Sacramento is essentially constant during the spring, remaining around 0% throughout.

For reference, on July 29, the muggiest day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time, while on January 1, the least muggy day of the year, there are muggy conditions 0% of the time.

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed in Sacramento is essentially constant during the spring, remaining within 0.2 miles per hour of 6.5 miles per hour throughout.

For reference, on July 19, the windiest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 7.2 miles per hour, while on October 20, the calmest day of the year, the daily average wind speed is 5.2 miles per hour.

The wind direction in Sacramento during the spring is predominantly out of the south from March 1 to April 8 and the west from April 8 to May 31.

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season in Sacramento typically lasts for 11 months (328 days), from around January 19 to around December 12, rarely starting after February 22, or ending before November 18.

The spring in Sacramento is very likely fully within the growing season, with the chance that a given day is in the growing season gradually increasing from 96% to 100% over the course of the season.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

The average accumulated growing degree days in Sacramento are very rapidly increasing during the spring, increasing by 959°F, from 151°F to 1,110°F, over the course of the season.

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy in Sacramento is very rapidly increasing during the spring, rising by 4.1 kWh, from 3.8 kWh to 7.9 kWh, over the course of the season.

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Sacramento are 38.582 deg latitude, -121.494 deg longitude, and 26 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Sacramento is essentially flat, with a maximum elevation change of 33 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 24 feet. Within 10 miles is essentially flat (135 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (4,760 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Sacramento is covered by artificial surfaces (86%) and herbaceous vegetation (10%), within 10 miles by artificial surfaces (48%) and cropland (42%), and within 50 miles by cropland (37%) and grassland (29%).