climate

Chihuahua lies on the western side of the Chihuahuan Desert ecoregion and as such has a semiarid climate (476.7 mm of precipitation annually) but is not as hot as most of the lower elevated portions of the desert to the east owing to an altitude of almost 1500 m ASL (the average temperature is 17.8 °C). The National Weather Service of Mexico (Servicio Meteorologico Nacional) states that for the period of 1971 to 2000 the warmest temperature recorded in the city is 40 °C on June 21, 1981 and the coldest was -10 °C on December 9, 1978. July 1973 is the record wettest month, with 242.5 mm. For a single day the record rainfall is 81 mm on September 25, 1978. Snowfall is somewhat uncommon, normally with 2 snowfalls a year, although the surrounding area may receive three or four snowfalls.