This weather has a price Keeping the median Essex County home comfortable runs roughly $710 a year in heating and cooling alone. See where it lands in the monthly bill

30-year climate normals

Essex County Climate and Weather Averages

Hottest month: July

85.2°

average daily high. The coldest month is January, averaging a low of 22.9°F.

Essex County gets 44.88" of precipitation a year, and 29% of it falls in Jun, Jul, Aug.

Temperature through the year

Each bar spans the average daily low to the average daily high for that month.

Month	Avg high	Avg low	Precip
January	38.3°	22.9°	3.04"
February	41.4°	23.9°	2.55"
March	49.4°	31.3°	4.07"
April	61.9°	41.0°	3.71"
May	72.1°	50.9°	3.39"
June	80.5°	60.3°	4.27"
July	85.2°	66.0°	4.33"
August	83.6°	64.2°	4.49"
September	76.0°	56.7°	3.72"
October	64.5°	45.0°	3.97"
November	53.4°	35.4°	3.30"
December	43.0°	27.7°	4.04"

Rainfall by month

Precipitation is spread fairly evenly through the year here, with 29% falling in the wettest three months (Jun, Jul, Aug).

January 3.04"

February 2.55"

March 4.07"

April 3.71"

May 3.39"

June 4.27"

July 4.33"

August 4.49"

September 3.72"

October 3.97"

November 3.30"

December 4.04"

Annual total 44.88"

What this climate costs you

Degree days measure how hard a building has to work to stay comfortable. They are the reason two identical houses have very different power bills, and they are the link between the weather here and what you pay every month.

Cooling degree days How much air conditioning the climate demands 973

Heating degree days How much heating the climate demands 5,272

Approximate annual cooling cost At 25.19¢/kWh, New Jersey average $245

Approximate annual electric heating cost Lower where heating is gas rather than electric $465

These are rough planning figures from degree days and the state electricity price, not a bill estimate. House size, insulation and fuel type move them a lot. See the full cost of owning a home in Essex County, where electricity is one line of eight.

Common questions

What is the weather like in Essex County?

Essex County averages a high of 85.2°F in July and a low of 22.9°F in January. Annual precipitation is 44.88 inches, with essentially no snow.

When is the rainy season in Essex County?

The wettest stretch is Jun, Jul, Aug, which accounts for 29% of the year's precipitation. Precipitation is relatively evenly distributed across the year.

How hot does it get in Essex County?

The average daily high in July, the hottest month, is 85.2°F. That drives 973 cooling degree days a year, which is what your air conditioning has to work against.

Does it snow in Essex County?

The weather station used for Essex County, CALDWELL ESSEX CO AP, NJ US, reports temperature and precipitation but not snowfall, so there is no snow normal to quote here. Precipitation that falls as snow is still counted in the 44.88 inches above, measured as melted water.

Sources

Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 1991 to 2020 Monthly Climate Normals, station CALDWELL ESSEX CO AP, NJ US (USW00054743), 6.4 miles from the county centroid.
Heating and cooling degree days: NOAA, same station and period.
Annual figures on this page are the sum of that station's twelve monthly normals. NOAA also publishes a separately-computed annual normal, which can differ from the monthly sum by a few percent; we use the monthly series because the month-by-month breakdown above has to come from it.
Electricity price: US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A, New Jersey residential average.
Wet-season share is the wettest three consecutive months as a percentage of annual precipitation, calculated from the monthly normals.