Raleigh, North Carolina Weather Records
The hottest and coldest days Raleigh has ever recorded — and how today compares to normal
Raleigh, NC · Today vs. normal
17°F below the June normal
Right now it’s 70°F in Raleigh — about 17° below the June normal high of 87°F.
Raleigh’s all-time temperature records
- Hottest day on record
- 106°Fset July 5, 2024
- Coldest day on record
- -9°Fset January 21, 1985
That is a 115°F span between the hottest and coldest days Raleigh has ever recorded — the full range of what its weather has done across the station’s record back to 1944.
How extreme Raleigh’s weather gets
Raleigh’s weather is usually mild by its own standards — a typical year averages a daily high near 72°F, and the normal high for June runs about 87°F. The records sit well outside that everyday range. The hottest day on record reached 106°F in 2024 — roughly 34°F above a typical year’s average high, the kind of gap that turns an ordinary summer into a genuine heat event.
At the other end, Raleigh has bottomed out at -9°F (1985). Together the two extremes span 115°F — the full width of what this place’s weather has done across the station’s daily record back to 1944. Those edges are exactly why the anomaly readout at the top of this page is worth a glance: it shows where today falls between the normal and the record, so a hot afternoon can be judged against the real history rather than a hunch. A reading a few degrees over the June normal is ordinary; one pushing toward the 106°F record is the rare event the record marks.
Frequently asked
- What is the hottest day ever recorded in Raleigh?
- Raleigh's hottest day on record reached 106°F, set on July 5, 2024. That is the single most extreme high in the nearest long-term weather station's full daily record — about 34°F hotter than a typical year's average high of 72°F, which is why a day like it stands out as genuinely rare rather than just a hot afternoon.
- What is the record high temperature in Raleigh?
- The all-time record high in Raleigh is 106°F, recorded on July 5, 2024. Records are drawn from the nearest long-term weather station's full daily history, so this is the hottest single day the station has ever logged — not a typical summer peak.
- What is the coldest day ever recorded in Raleigh?
- Raleigh's coldest day on record bottomed out at -9°F, set on January 21, 1985. Like the record high, it comes from the station's complete daily record, so it captures the most extreme cold the area has recorded rather than an average winter low.
- What is the record low temperature in Raleigh?
- The all-time record low in Raleigh is -9°F, recorded on January 21, 1985. The gap between that and the 106°F record high — a span of 115°F — is the full range of temperatures Raleigh has experienced across its long-term daily record.
- Is it normal to be this hot in Raleigh?
- It depends on how far above Raleigh's normal a given day runs. A typical year here averages a daily high near 72°F; the all-time record of 106°F (set 2024) sits about 34°F above that. The anomaly readout at the top of this page compares the current temperature against this month's normal high, so you can see exactly how unusual today is rather than guessing.
- When did Raleigh set its temperature records?
- Raleigh's record high of 106°F was set in 2024 (July 5, 2024), and its record low of -9°F in 1985 (January 21, 1985). Both are pulled from the station's complete daily record going back to 1944, so they reflect the true extremes rather than a recent or partial sample.
- Has Raleigh been getting hotter?
- Yes — Raleigh's annual mean temperature has trended about 2.5°F warmer since 1944, in line with the long-term warming seen across nearly every US city. That gradual shift in the average is separate from the all-time records above, which mark the single most extreme days rather than the trend, but a warming baseline is part of why recent years more often brush up against the record-high end.
More for Raleigh
See the full Raleigh, NC weather forecast — hour-by-hour outlook, NOAA radar, satellite, and air quality — or the broader Raleigh climate & weather by month for the long-run averages behind these records.