July is high, dry summer across most of California — golden hills, hot valley days, and the cool refuge of the coast and high Sierra. The alpine meadows reach their flowering peak, the night skies are warm and dark, and the markets overflow with summer fruit.
Week by week in July
July 2–8
- Tuolumne Meadows and the eastern Sierra blaze with lupine, paintbrush, columbine, and shooting star.
- Stone fruit hits its glorious peak — peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots, and the California-pioneered pluots.
- Fritillaries, alpine coppers, and parnassians fill the flowering high Sierra meadows.
- Coast redwoods survive the rainless month on the daily summer fog that drips from their crowns.
July 9–15
- The scarlet California fuchsia begins its brilliant late-summer show in the chaparral, a vital nectar source.
- Vine-ripe tomatoes, sweet corn, and interior-valley melons are at their summer best.
- Start fall-garden transplants — broccoli and cabbage — in a shaded, cooler spot for late-summer planting.
- The first southbound shorebirds — western and least sandpipers, whimbrel — appear on the mudflats, an early sign of fall.
July 16–22
- The summer Milky Way arches overhead, its Sagittarius-Scorpius core the richest stretch of sky all year.
- The high-country morning offers mountain bluebirds, Clark's nutcrackers, and alpine rosy-finches in the cool Sierra.
- Figs reach their peak and the earliest wine-grape harvest hints at the coming crush.
- California fuchsia and the seed-setting buckwheats sustain hairstreaks, blues, and metalmarks through the drought.
July 23–29
- Monterey Bay is at its summer peak with masses of sooty shearwaters and returning Heermann's gulls and elegant terns.
- Survive the heat with deep dawn irrigation, thick mulch, and shade cloth on tender crops during heat waves.
- Padron and shishito peppers and the first winter squash begin showing at the stalls.
- The drought-deciduous California buckeye stands nearly bare, hanging only its heavy green seed-pods.
Birds This Month
July is a quieter birding month in the hot lowlands but a superb one in California's cool refuges. In the valley and foothills, the breeding season winds down — adult songbirds are feeding fledglings and beginning to fall silent, broods of California quail dust-bathe in the shade, and acorn woodpeckers tend their granaries. The best lowland birding is at dawn and at water, where birds concentrate.
The high Sierra is the place to be. The montane forests and meadows are full of activity as mountain birds raise their young — mountain bluebirds and mountain chickadees, Cassin's finches, Williamson's sapsuckers, Clark's nutcrackers, green-tailed towhees, and hermit warblers — and the alpine specialties like gray-crowned rosy-finches reward a high hike. The cool meadows alive with wildflowers and hummingbirds make for memorable mountain mornings.
On the coast, the seabird colonies are fledging chicks, Monterey Bay is at its summer peak with masses of sooty shearwaters and the first returning Heermann's gulls and elegant terns from their Mexican colonies, and the southbound shorebird migration quietly begins — the first returning western sandpipers, least sandpipers, and whimbrel appear on the mudflats by late month, an early sign of fall.
This month's tip: beat the valley heat with a high-country trip or an early coastal morning — the Sierra meadows and the cool coast hold the month's best birds, and the first southbound shorebirds hint that fall migration is already stirring.
What's Blooming
July is the wildflower peak of California's high country, even as the lowlands lie golden and dry. The alpine and subalpine meadows of the Sierra Nevada are at their absolute best — Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite, the high basins of Sequoia and Kings Canyon, and the eastern Sierra slopes blaze with lupine, paintbrush, mountain monkeyflower, columbine, shooting star, elephant's head, penstemon, corn lily, and the alpine sky pilot and alpine gold on the highest rocky slopes.
In the lowlands, only the toughest dry-season natives still flower: California buckwheat turns rusty as it sets seed, the late native sages and woolly bluecurls hold on, California fuchsia begins its brilliant scarlet late-summer show in the chaparral, and matilija poppy finishes on the dry slopes. The coastal bluffs keep a few hardy blooms in the fog belt.
Where to see it: the high Sierra is unmatched in July — hike a high meadow or a pass trail in Yosemite, Sequoia-Kings Canyon, or the eastern Sierra for the year's best mountain wildflowers. In the lowlands, look for the chaparral's late natives, especially the scarlet California fuchsia. Stay on trails through the fragile alpine meadows, where a single footstep can leave a scar for years.
Garden This Month
July is peak summer in the California garden, and survival of the heat and drought is the whole game in the interior. Water remains the priority: deep morning irrigation and heavy mulch keep the garden alive through the hottest, driest stretch of the year, and shade cloth shields tender crops in the scorching valley afternoons. Tomatoes and peppers may stall their fruit set during extreme heat — keep them watered and they will resume as temperatures moderate.
The summer harvest is in full flood: pick tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers, beans, and melons regularly to keep the plants producing. Late July is the moment to look ahead — start fall and winter transplants (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale) in a shaded, cooler spot now for setting out in late summer, the secret to California's long cool-season harvest. Keep heavy feeders fed, monitor for spider mites, hornworms, and powdery mildew, and water container plants daily. On the cool coast, gardens cruise comfortably through the marine layer.
Zone 10a (mild coast, Los Angeles basin): the fog-cooled coast stays productive through July — keep harvesting and succession-sowing beans and basil. Watch for powdery mildew on squash in the marine moisture, water as the fog clears, and enjoy a far gentler summer than the interior.
Zone 6b (Sierra Nevada): the short high-country summer is in full swing — harvest cool-season and quick crops, keep everything watered through the dry mountain air, and remember the season is brief. Begin planning for an early fall frost, which can arrive at elevation as soon as September.
Zone 9b (Central Valley, inland Southern California): deep summer heat rules — water deeply at dawn, mulch heavily, and use shade cloth on tender crops during the worst heat waves. Harvest tomatoes, squash, beans, and cucumbers daily. Late July is the time to start fall-garden transplants (broccoli, cabbage) in the shade for autumn planting.
What's at the Farmers Market
July is the height of California summer at the market, a flood of fruit and vegetables. The stone fruit is at its glorious peak — peaches, nectarines, and plums from the San Joaquin in every variety, plus apricots and the wonderful pluots and other interspecific crosses California pioneered. The first Central Valley table grapes, figs, and a wide range of melons — cantaloupes, honeydews, and watermelons from the hot interior valleys — arrive in force.
The summer vegetables are at their best: vine-ripe tomatoes of every kind, sweet corn, summer squash, green beans, cucumbers, peppers, eggplant, and the first shishito and padron peppers. Boysenberries, blackberries, and blueberries round out the berry stalls.
For selection and storage: choose tomatoes fragrant and heavy and store them stem-side down at room temperature, never the refrigerator, which dulls the flavor; pick stone fruit fragrant and just-yielding and finish ripening on the counter; thump a melon for a dull, hollow sound and look for a creamy ground spot. July markets are at their richest — come early and come hungry, because the summer abundance is at its absolute peak.
Night Sky This Month
July offers California warm, settled nights and the glorious summer Milky Way, and the high country and deserts both deliver dark skies. The Sierra parks — Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon, and Lassen — are superb on warm July nights, and the eastern Sierra around the Bristlecone Pine Forest sits under famously dark, transparent skies. The deserts are hot by day but their nights can be excellent; Death Valley remains an International Dark Sky Park even in summer. Summer is the busy season for star parties at high-elevation sites statewide.
The summer sky is at its grandest. After dark, the Milky Way arches from the southern horizon overhead — the dense, glowing core toward Sagittarius and Scorpius (with red Antares) is the richest stretch of sky all year, packed with star clusters and nebulae for binoculars. Overhead rides the bright Summer Triangle of Vega, Deneb, and Altair, with the little constellations Lyra, Cygnus, and Aquila.
There is no major meteor shower in July, though the Perseids begin to build late in the month. For this year's planet positions and the darkest moonless Milky Way nights, see the printable California night-sky guide.
Butterflies & Pollinators
July is the butterfly peak of California's high country, while the hot lowlands quiet to the dry-season specialists. The Sierra meadows in full bloom are alive with butterflies — fritillaries on the violets, alpine blues, coppers, and checkerspots, the pale parnassians over the rocky slopes, and mountain swallowtails and tortoiseshells patrolling the high canyons. A July hike through a flowering Sierra meadow is the best butterflying of the California year.
In the lowlands, the late-summer natives carry the butterflies through the drought. The brilliant scarlet California fuchsia and the seed-setting buckwheats draw hairstreaks, blues, and metalmarks, and gulf fritillaries, fiery skippers, painted ladies, and the big western tiger swallowtail stay active in gardens and along the watered streamsides. Resident monarchs continue breeding wherever milkweed stays green.
To help them: in the rainless heart of summer, watered native nectar plants are everything — California fuchsia, the native sages and buckwheats, yarrow, and zinnias keep pollinators going when the wild bloom has gone to seed. Keep native milkweed alive for the monarchs, provide a damp puddling spot in the heat, and skip the pesticides that do the most harm to butterflies at their summer peak.
What to plant for them is in the California native plants guide
Trees This Month
July is the dry, dormant heart of summer for California's lowland trees. The drought-deciduous California buckeye now stands nearly bare, its leaves shed and only the heavy green seed-pods hanging on its silvery branches — its strategy for surviving the rainless months. The blue oaks and valley oaks endure, their leathery leaves dulling, and the golden hills bake under the sun, the dry grass that gives the Golden State its name now fully cured.
The cool refuges keep their green. The coast redwoods survive the dry season on the daily summer fog that condenses in their crowns and drips to their roots — a fog so vital that scientists estimate it provides a large share of the water the redwood forest needs each summer. In the high Sierra, the conifers and the great giant sequoias are in full summer growth, drawing on the deep, slow melt of the winter snowpack, and the quaking aspens shimmer green in the mountain meadows. Fire-adapted, the sequoias even depend on summer wildfire's heat to open their cones and clear ground for their seedlings.
The California native plants guide covers what grows with them
Weather & Daylight
Across California, a typical July day averages a high near 91°F and a low near 61°F, with about 0.2 inches of precipitation — statewide averages from the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals.
Peak heat settles in around 91 by day and 61 overnight, the driest stretch of the year with almost no rain at all.
| Average high | 91°F |
|---|---|
| Average low | 61°F |
| Precipitation | 0.2 in |
| Sunrise (mid-month) | 5:53 PT |
| Sunset (mid-month) | 20:18 PT |
Figures are statewide averages over the 1991–2020 U.S. climate normals; local conditions vary with elevation and distance from the coast. Sunrise and sunset are computed for a midstate point on the 15th (PT).
Next month's version of this page, by email
One short note when California's next month turns — what's arriving, blooming, and worth a night outside.
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The complete California birding, native-plant, and night-sky references — or the whole year, week by week, in one book.
Same month elsewhere: July in Colorado · July in Connecticut · July in Delaware