What City Has the Best Weather in Utah?

Utah is known for its abundant natural diversity, from arid deserts to alpine climates. This variety allows people with various climate preferences to find a place that most suits their needs. Whether you want mild winters, cold weather most of the year, or a pleasant four-season climate, you can find it in Utah.

In this article I’ll give your suggestions on cities with:

• the warmest weather year round (for those who want to avoid freezing temperatures as much as possible),
• mild weather (for most pleasant weather without extremes which are common in Utah),
• the coolest weather (for those who don’t like hot weather).

What City Has the Warmest Weather Year Round in Utah?

The warmest city in Utah is St. George in southwest Utah, near Arizona and Nevada borders. According to my ranking of the warmest cities in Utah, it’s far warmer than other cities in Utah. This includes other warm cities in southern Utah like La Verkin or Kanab and of course also the largest ones like Salt Lake City or Provo that are much colder.

St. George’s climate is more similar to Las Vegas than to other cities in the Beehive State. The difference is particularly noticeable when you compare weather in St. George and cities in northern Utah. Temperatures in St. George may be up to 15-20 degrees Fahrenheit higher than in the northern part of the state.

The average winter temperatures in the warmest city of Utah reach 53-59 °F during the day and drop to 28-32 °F at night (as opposed to 39-45 °F in SLC during the day and 24-29 °F at night). The warmest days may record temperatures of 64-70 °F while the coldest nights may drop to 21-25 °F.

This means that while St. George has mild winters, temperatures below freezing are common in the coldest months. Still, days feel spring-like which is definitely not the case on most winter days in Salt Lake City, let alone colder areas like Bryce Canyon National Park or Canyonlands National Park.

Outside of the winter months, St. George records very high temperatures. In fact, average highs reach 75 °F in April already and are still over 90 °F in September and about 80 °F in October. If you want good weather, this is the best time to visit St. George and nearby national parks (like Zion National Park). Note that September is the peak tourist season, though.

Between June and August, St. George may be too hot for most people unless you really love hot weather. With average highs between 96-102 °F and average lows of 65-72 °F, it’s hot most of the day. On the hottest days, St. George may experience temperatures climbing to 106-110 °F while on the coolest summer nights temperatures may drop to 55-66 °F.

What City Has the Mildest Weather in Utah?

Many cities in Utah have very hot summers. Consequently, the best year round weather in Utah may not be necessarily found in its warmest city due to oppressively hot summer months. It would be better to live in a place that has mild winters but also doesn’t get extremely hot in the warmest months.

The closest city in Utah to having a mild year round climate is Cedar City. But it’s not a true mild climate: Cedar City experiences very cold winter nights, with temperatures dropping to 19-23 °F. Winter days are relatively mild, though, with temperatures reaching 42-47 °F.

I picked Cedar City as a city with the mildest climate in Utah because it has cool for the state summers. Average high temperatures in the summer months reach 83-89 °F which is about 5 °F cooler than in, for example, Salt Lake city. Nighttime temperatures in Cedar City are much cooler as well, dropping to 50-58 °F which is about 10 °F lower than in Salt Lake City. For most people, such temperatures won’t require using air conditioning except for the hottest days.

When you look at Cedar City’s climate during the entire year, compared to other cities in the state, it features pleasant weather or at least comfortable conditions between March/April until November. In comparison, Salt Lake City has two summer months (July and August) with much hotter days and nights.

What City Has the Coldest Weather in Utah?

If you prefer to live in a place with cool weather to enjoy winter sports year round, I have an option for you, too.

Park City is by far the coldest city in Utah. Due to the city’s high elevation of 7,000 feet, its average annual temperature of 42.95 °F is over 20 °F lower than in St. George and 12 °F lower than in Salt Lake City. Areas of the city at higher elevations are even colder.

Park City has long and extremely snowy winters. On average, only two months don’t get any snow: July and August. Very little snow is still possible in June as well as already in September. Other than that, expect 44 snowy days a year with 121 inches of snowfall.

Compared to Salt Lake City, Park City has similarly cold winter days but much colder nights. Average daytime temperatures reach 33-35 °F compared to 31-37 °F in Salt Lake City. At night, temperatures drop on average to 16-17 °F which is much less than 24-29 °F in Salt Lake City.

But it’s the summers that make Park City such a cool weather city. With daytime temperatures on average climbing only to 72-80 °F, Park City is much more pleasant than SLC with 84-94 °F in the same period. Nights in Park City are also much colder and feel more like spring or fall than summer. Average temperatures drop to just 46-53 °F compared to 59-68 °F in SLC.

If you want other options for cold weather in Utah, read my article “What’s the Coldest Place in Utah?“