What is the Absolute Coldest Place in California?

California is known for its beautiful, sunny and warm year-round weather but some parts of California can get ridiculously cold in the winter. 

But what is the absolute coldest place in California that pretty much stays cold all year round?

After an exhaustive search that place has been found. It is such a cold place that zero degree weather temperatures have been recorded in nine out of the 12 months of the year and the lowest temperature ever recorded there in June is a scalding 2 (yes that's 2) degrees.

Even in July and August the record low temperatures are 12 and 13 degrees respectively. It's so cold here that the average daily temperature for the entire year is just 27.5 degrees which is 4.5 degrees below the freezing mark.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in this absolute coldest place in California is -35 degrees which occurred on March 10, 1964. While that is a full 10 degrees warmer than the record coldest temperature of -45 degrees for California which was set on January 20, 1937 in Boca, the Boca area does not stay cold all year round.

In fact, the record high in Boca, California is 103 degrees set on July 1, 1976. The record hottest temperature for the absolute coldest place in California is just 73 degrees set on August 19, 1976. That's a full 30 degrees colder than the record high in Boca.

It's so cold at this place in California that the place averages over 1" of snowfall in both July and August. The place averages over 160" of yearly snowfall which is a lot less than in places like Truckee, but it never snows in Truckee in July or August and barely snows at all from June through October. The coldest place in California averages 7" of snow in June, 3.5" in September and 10.9" of snow in October.

Here a quick chart showing the record lowest temperatures for the 9 months in the coldest place in California when it has been below zero and the average daily temperatures for each of the 9 months

January -25 degrees with an average daily temperature of 15.2 degrees

February -21 degrees with average daily temperature of 14.8 degrees

March -35 degrees with average daily temp of 15.6 degrees

April -30 degrees with average daily temp of 19.1 degrees

May -15 degrees with average daily temp of 27.7 degrees

September -7 degrees with average daily temp of 38.8 degrees

October -20 degrees with average daily temp of 31.4 degrees

November -28 degrees with average daily temp of 22.8 degrees

December -30 degrees with average daily temp of 17.4 degrees

It's hard to believe that all those cold temperature numbers are from a place in California. The numbers look more like a place in the Arctic or Greenland or Northern Alaska but the place in California is real and it's called White Mountain Peak.

White Mountain Peak is the 3rd tallest mountain in California at 14,252 feet. It is located off Route 6 in Western California near the Nevada border about 20 miles east of Mammoth Lakes. Ironically, White Mountain Peak is located only about 100 miles northwest of Death Valley, California, where the hottest temperature in the world was recorded in 1913.

There is a a research station on top of White Mountain Peak that is run the by the University of California. That's a good thing not only for the weather information but because there is a dirt road that goes to the summit which makes the summit easy to reach for hikers and mountain climbers.

So the answer to the question what is the absolute coldest place in California is White Mountain Peak.