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Mean temperature across the twenty-four solar terms — the climate this calendar was written for

Climate reading

Los Angeles and the Chinese solar calendar

In Los Angeles, the calendar's frost and snow names don't match the weather: thirty years of records show no freeze at all, so there's no last freeze to wait for either. Where the calendar and your weather disagree, go by your weather.

The weather station behind this page

Weather stationLAX, CA
Station IDUSW00023174
Days without a freeze, per year365
Typical first freezeno freeze on record
Typical last freezeno freeze on record
Rain and heatr = -0.94 (run opposite)
Years averaged1991–2020

Official NOAA averages for 1991–2020 at this station: a typical year, not a forecast.

Right now

Rain and heat across the whole year

Here the rainy weeks tend to be the cooler weeks, the reverse of where the calendar comes from, so its advice for muggy, hot-and-wet weather doesn't fit Los Angeles. On a scale from −1 (opposite) to 1 (perfectly together), Los Angeles scores -0.94 and the calendar's home region 0.88.

Where the calendar is most wrong about Los Angeles

These four two-week stretches are where the calendar's names or advice sit furthest from Los Angeles's thirty-year record.

Minor Snow 小雪from 2026-11-22

The old calendar's three signs for these weeks, one per five days: 虹藏不见 · 天气上升地气下降 · 闭塞而成冬

The Su Wen, part of the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, calls winter the season of closing and storing (閉藏). Go to bed early and get up late, once the sun is up; stay warm without sweating. That keeps you in step with winter. Go against it, the text warns, and the kidneys suffer, showing up in spring as weakness and collapse (痿厥).

Average, low, high59.4°F / 50.8°F / 68.0°F
Days with measurable rain13.7%
Days at or below freezing0.0
Daylight10h 12m (-22 min from two weeks ago)
  • Where the calendar comes from, these weeks average about 40.6°F. At LAX, CA: 59.4°F, 18.8°F warmer.
  • 'Minor Snow' names what people in the Yellow River valley saw in nature, not a temperature. At LAX, CA, a normal year has 0.0 freezing days in total, so here the name and the thermometer have nothing to do with each other.
  • The fastest-cooling stretch of the year: 3.3°F cooler than the two weeks before.

Yang deficiency (running low on the body's warmth) traditionally finds winter hard. Here the average low this stretch is 50.8°F.

Minor Cold 小寒from 2026-01-05

The old calendar's three signs for these weeks, one per five days: 雁北乡 · 鹊始巢 · 雉雊

The winter advice above covers these weeks too.

Average, low, high57.9°F / 49.4°F / 66.4°F
Days with measurable rain19.4%
Days at or below freezing0.0
Daylight9h 58m (+5 min from two weeks ago)
  • Where the calendar comes from, these weeks average about 33.1°F. At LAX, CA: 57.9°F, 24.8°F warmer.
  • 'Minor Cold' names what people in the Yellow River valley saw in nature, not a temperature. At LAX, CA, a normal year has 0.0 freezing days in total, so here the name and the thermometer have nothing to do with each other.

Blood stasis (blood that doesn't move freely) traditionally finds cold hard. Here the average low this stretch is 49.4°F.

Major Cold 大寒from 2026-01-20

The old calendar's three signs for these weeks, one per five days: 鸡乳 · 征鸟厉疾 · 水泽腹坚

The winter advice above covers these weeks too.

Average, low, high57.9°F / 49.5°F / 66.2°F
Days with measurable rain19.9%
Days at or below freezing0.0
Daylight10h 13m (+14 min from two weeks ago)
  • Where the calendar comes from, these weeks average about 34.0°F. At LAX, CA: 57.9°F, 23.9°F warmer.
  • 'Major Cold' names what people in the Yellow River valley saw in nature, not a temperature. At LAX, CA, a normal year has 0.0 freezing days in total, so here the name and the thermometer have nothing to do with each other.

Qi stagnation (energy that gets stuck, often felt as low spirits) traditionally finds gray, rainy stretches hard. Rain falls on 19.9% of days in this stretch, against 9.6% across Los Angeles's year.

Major Snow 大雪from 2026-12-07

The old calendar's three signs for these weeks, one per five days: 鹖鴠不鸣 · 虎始交 · 荔挺出

The winter advice above covers these weeks too.

Average, low, high57.5°F / 48.9°F / 65.9°F
Days with measurable rain17.1%
Days at or below freezing0.0
Daylight9h 58m (-14 min from two weeks ago)
  • Where the calendar comes from, these weeks average about 36.3°F. At LAX, CA: 57.5°F, 21.2°F warmer.
  • 'Major Snow' names what people in the Yellow River valley saw in nature, not a temperature. At LAX, CA, a normal year has 0.0 freezing days in total, so here the name and the thermometer have nothing to do with each other.

All twenty-four two-week stretches in Los Angeles

Two weeks BeginsAvg °FRainy days %Freezing daysvs. calendar °F
Minor Cold小寒2026-01-0557.919.40.0+24.8
Major Cold大寒2026-01-2057.919.90.0+23.9
Start of Spring立春2026-02-0457.721.60.0+19.4
Rain Water雨水2026-02-1858.121.90.0+15.3
Awakening of Insects惊蛰2026-03-0558.918.70.0+10.9
Spring Equinox春分2026-03-2059.814.40.0+6.0
Pure Brightness清明2026-04-0560.810.20.0+2.0
Grain Rain谷雨2026-04-2062.17.70.0-2.5
Start of Summer立夏2026-05-0563.35.90.0-4.3
Grain Buds小满2026-05-2164.43.50.0-7.9
Grain in Ear芒种2026-06-0566.01.70.0-10.5
Summer Solstice夏至2026-06-2168.11.10.0-10.9
Minor Heat小暑2026-07-0769.51.50.0-10.6
Major Heat大暑2026-07-2370.21.40.0-11.1
Start of Autumn立秋2026-08-0770.70.70.0-7.6
End of Heat处暑2026-08-2371.00.70.0-3.8
White Dew白露2026-09-0770.31.80.0+1.8
Autumn Equinox秋分2026-09-2368.73.70.0+4.8
Cold Dew寒露2026-10-0867.26.20.0+8.2
Frost's Descent霜降2026-10-2365.58.40.0+12.1
Start of Winter立冬2026-11-0762.710.40.0+16.1
Minor Snow小雪2026-11-2259.413.70.0+18.8
Major Snow大雪2026-12-0757.517.10.0+21.2
Winter Solstice冬至2026-12-2257.419.10.0+23.6

‘vs. calendar’ is how much warmer (+) or cooler (−) each stretch runs here than where the calendar comes from. Rain figures count rainy days, not inches.

The body-type notes follow traditional Chinese medicine as set out in a national standard in China. Tying them to this city's weather is a traditional association, not a finding from modern research. Which type goes with which stretch is our own arrangement: each is matched to the time of year the standard says it finds hard, or, for rain, to the rainiest of the four when it's wetter than Los Angeles's year as a whole. Weather doesn't decide anyone's body type. To find yours, take the assessment.

Find out your body type

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How Los Angeles compares with the other thirteen

Los Angeles has 365 frost-free days a year, the most of the fourteen, tied with Miami, Phoenix and San Francisco. That's 214 more than Denver, which has the fewest.

Rain falls on 9.6% of days here over a year. Phoenix is the driest of the fourteen at 9.2% and Seattle the wettest at 43.1%, which puts Los Angeles at the dry end.

The hottest two weeks here are End of Heat, with an average high of 77.3°F and rain on 0.7% of days: never especially hot. 12 of the fourteen get hotter at their peak, Phoenix among them.

The other thirteen cities

All fourteen cities side by side

Where this comes from

The thirty-year averages are NOAA's official 1991–2020 figures, one station per city, read straight from NOAA's records by our own program. Freezing days for each two-week stretch are estimated from NOAA's monthly counts. Figures for where the calendar comes from are based on weather-station measurements and reanalysis data from the Yellow River valley in northern China, where the calendar's names come from. The seasonal advice comes from the Su Wen, in our own translation.

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