Death Valley

The hottest basin in the hemisphere sits directly beneath a mountain that carries winter snow.

1994PARK SINCE

Below-sea-level compressionMultiple rain shadowsTwo vertical miles of relief

Death Valley is not one flat desert. Air descends across several ranges, warming and drying each time, then settles into a basin below sea level where compression and recirculation make extraordinary heat self-reinforcing. The Panamint Range rises more than two vertical miles above it. A summer number from Furnace Creek is a life-safety fact for the floor and almost meaningless on Telescope Peak.

1994National Park sinceDesignation year, not necessarily first protection.

2Weather regionsThe terrain systems crossed by the park.

2.2–5.4″Reference-station rainAnnual range across the selected gauges.

100–117°FJuly mean highsThe heat range visible in the transect.

Official NPS conditions

California map locating Death Valley National Park.

282 ft below sea level to 11,049-ft Telescope Peak. Highlighted frames are the atlas regions this park crosses.

The four seasons

THE PARK CHANGES VERTICALLY, TOO

Winter

Mild on the floor, cold on high ridges and the only season with a meaningful chance of broad frontal rain.

Spring

A short transition: pleasant basin weather gives way quickly to dangerous heat, often with strong gradient wind.

Summer

Extreme heat is the controlling condition; monsoon moisture sometimes adds flash floods without useful cooling.

Autumn

Heat loosens slowly. The high country cools first while the basin can remain severe well into October.

The climate transect

REFERENCE STATIONS · NOT A PARK-WIDE AVERAGE

These named gauges expose the park's temperature and precipitation gradient. They may sit outside the legal boundary; each linked place page states the exact NOAA station, its elevation and its distance. None is presented as a current park forecast.

NOAA/NCEI 1991–2020 monthly normals. See each place page for station provenance and any precipitation substitute.
Atlas reference	Terrain region	Elevation	Jan low	Jul high	Annual precip	Snow
Furnace Creek	Mojave Desert	-190	42°	117°	2.2″	—
Lone Pine	Eastern Sierra & Owens Valley	3,727	30°	102°	5.4″	—
Bishop	Eastern Sierra & Owens Valley	4,150	24°	100°	4.8″	—

What changes the day

CLIMATE CONTEXT · NOT A LIVE WARNING FEED

Extreme heat

The basin floor's heat is a primary environmental hazard, not a comfort index.

Flash flood

Bare rock and narrow canyons turn distant monsoon rain into fast debris-filled water.

Wind

Passes and alluvial fans accelerate strong cross-valley pressure gradients.

For today's roads, trails, closures and alerts: this page supplies climate context only. Open Death Valley's official NPS conditions →

The terrain underneath it

GOLDEN STATE WEATHER REGIONS

Mojave DesertThe high desert, and the lowest, hottest point in the hemisphere inside it.DESERTS11,331 FT RELIEF Eastern Sierra & Owens ValleyA deep valley in the deepest rain shadow in North America.BEYOND THE CREST11,005 FT RELIEF

← Sequoia The nine parks Channel Islands →