Find official KLAX climate data, monthly climatological reports, normals and hourly records using the correct Los Angeles station identifiers.
Find official KLAX climate data in NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information records for Los Angeles International Airport, using station identifiers KLAX, WBAN 23174 or GHCN USW00023174. Use Local Climatological Data for monthly reports, Daily Summaries for long series, and Integrated Surface Database records or archived METARs for hourly aviation weather.
Which KLAX climate source should you use?
For Aviation & Real-World Flying research, choose the dataset according to the time resolution and type of comparison required. A climate normal, monthly report and historical METAR answer different questions.
| Source or product | Best use | Main limitation |
|---|---|---|
| NOAA Local Climatological Data | Official monthly station reports, daily values and observation tables | Coverage and downloadable formats can vary by period |
| NOAA Daily Summaries | Long-term temperature and precipitation analysis | Not detailed enough to reconstruct weather at a particular hour |
| NOAA Integrated Surface Database | Hourly or sub-hourly wind, visibility, cloud and weather observations | Requires careful handling of reporting intervals and missing fields |
| U.S. Climate Normals | Typical monthly and annual conditions; use the 1991–2020 period when that is the required baseline | A normal is a statistical reference, not the weather on a particular date |
| National Weather Service climate products | Readable monthly reports, records and summaries for Los Angeles | The archive may not provide every underlying observation |
The National Weather Service Los Angeles/Oxnard office also issues climatological products for LAX. Search its product archive for CLMLAX when you need the formatted monthly climatological report rather than a custom data export.
How do you find the correct Los Angeles airport station?
Search by both the airport name and its station identifiers because NOAA products do not all accept the same code.
- Select the required product. Choose Local Climatological Data for a formal monthly report, Daily Summaries for daily analysis, or Integrated Surface Database data for hourly research.
- Search for the station. Try
Los Angeles International Airport,KLAX,WBAN 23174orUSW00023174. Some catalogues recognise the FAA codeLAX, while others require the ICAO or NOAA identifier. - Verify the metadata. Confirm that the selected station is at Los Angeles International Airport, California. Downtown Los Angeles, Hawthorne and Santa Monica have different coastal exposure and are not interchangeable with KLAX.
- Set the date range and units. Retrieve the smallest interval that answers the question; very large hourly exports are harder to check for gaps.
- Save the station details. Record the product, identifier, date range, units and retrieval date alongside the data so the analysis can be reproduced.
Station selection matters at LAX because the marine layer and coastal temperature gradient can produce large differences over a short distance. Our KLAX airport and marine-layer overview explains that local context.
Why do KLAX climate figures sometimes disagree?
Apparent conflicts usually come from different periods, definitions or observation rules rather than an error in the data.
- Normals versus observations: a 30-year normal will not match the average from a shorter user-selected period.
- Local time versus UTC: daily totals can differ when products use different day boundaries.
- Trace precipitation: a trace is not the same as zero and may be represented by a letter, flag or special value.
- Missing observations: blank wind or precipitation fields must not be treated as calm or dry conditions.
- Wind statistics: sustained wind, peak gust and fastest-mile or fastest-two-minute values are separate measurements.
- Station changes: instrument, exposure and reporting-practice changes can create discontinuities. Check the station history before claiming a long-term trend.
The mistake we see most often is mixing a monthly normal with an actual historical observation. For the weather reported on one flight date, use archived hourly observations; for live operational planning, use our guide to checking KLAX METAR, TAF, ATIS and forecasts.
How can KLAX climate data be used in a flight simulator?
Climate records are best used to build plausible seasonal scenarios, not to reproduce one specific day.
- Use monthly cloud, visibility and temperature patterns to choose realistic seasonal conditions.
- Use hourly observations when recreating a dated real-world flight.
- Compare wind distributions with the runway headings shown on our KLAX runway diagrams and approach charts, while remembering that runway selection also depends on traffic flow, noise procedures and operational restrictions.
- Keep weather and airport configuration historically consistent; a climate average alone does not establish which runways were active at a particular time.