As one of the leading providers of adventure tours that go to Zion National Park, we hear people’s questions all the time. Because you are traveling to an area that you have probably never been to, and in many cases you are going to be spending an entire day outside exploring, if not multiple days if you are taking one of our longer tours, you want to know what to expect and how to dress. People from other parts of the country or the world may have no idea what the weather is like at different times of year in the southwestern United States, or how that weather can change over a 24 hour period. One of the main questions about the area that we are asked (and that Google is asked as well) is “what is the weather like in Zion National Park?”
The best way to answer this question is to first find out what time of year you are asking about. Naturally, there are seasons in Zion just like there are seasons in other places, although it might not get quite as extreme as you are used to. Keep in mind that Zion is the desert, so you are going to get bigger temperature swings than you will see if you are used to the city. There is not the same kind of climate that keeps heat trapped when you are in the desert, which means that it can be quite hot during the day and quite cold that same day after the sun goes down. It is always best to bring layers of clothing at almost any time of year, because there is going to be a dramatic change between the weather during the day and the weather at night. You may also find yourself in a situation where you are starting to heat up internally from hiking and exploring, so you will want to not be only having a coat with nothing less than that.
The weather itself in Zion National Park will generally be hovering around 100 degrees in the height of summer, if not slightly more. In the spring and fall it will generally be in the low to mid seventies, and in the winter it will be in the fifties and sixties. When night time falls during any of these periods you can expect a drop in temperature that will be about twenty degrees, if not a little more. When you are hiking and exploring, it is actually far more comfortable when the weather is in the seventies or sixties than during the summer. Most people will find that hiking in the heat is a little more extreme than they find comfortable, although it is not unbearable.
So what is the weather in Zion National Park like right now? At the current time (March 2108) we are experiencing temperatures that are slightly above normal. We will generally see temperatures of about seventy degrees if not a little more, and some days we are seeing the high seventies. There has been very little rain lately, so if your trip to Zion is happening any time soon you can prepare for spring-like, beautiful and sunny weather.