.png)
Warm weather law schools, ranked by average January low temperature, the number that actually describes a law school winter. UCLA and USC lead at 48.9F, then Berkeley at 43.3F and Texas at 41.8F; Minnesota anchors the other end at 8.8F. All 31 schools with NOAA normals below.
January low is the ranking variable because that is the temperature you walk to class in during your hardest semester. July high is included because summer matters if you stay for a clerkship or job.
#SchoolCityJan avg low FJul avg high FAnnual swing1USCLos Angeles, CA48.982.033.12UCLALos Angeles, CA48.982.033.13BerkeleyBerkeley, CA43.374.230.94TexasAustin, TX41.896.654.85StanfordStanford, CA39.079.440.46Texas A&MFort Worth, TX35.395.760.47GeorgiaAthens, GA33.892.058.28DukeDurham, NC31.890.859.09Wake ForestWinston-Salem, NC30.788.057.310VanderbiltNashville, TN30.190.960.811GeorgetownWashington, DC30.189.659.512GWWashington, DC30.189.659.513UVACharlottesville, VA29.589.760.214UNCChapel Hill, NC29.489.560.115ColumbiaNew York, NY27.984.957.016NYUNew York, NY27.984.957.017PennPhiladelphia, PA26.087.861.818WashUSt. Louis, MO23.889.665.819BYUProvo, UT23.895.271.420Boston CollegeNewton, MA23.182.159.021HarvardCambridge, MA23.182.159.022BUBoston, MA23.182.159.023YaleNew Haven, CT23.082.159.124Ohio StateColumbus, OH22.085.463.425UChicagoChicago, IL18.884.565.726NorthwesternChicago, IL18.884.565.727Notre DameNotre Dame, IN17.082.765.728MichiganAnn Arbor, MI16.283.767.529CornellIthaca, NY14.679.965.330WisconsinMadison, WI11.882.170.331MinnesotaMinneapolis, MN8.883.474.6
Source for every row: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 US Climate Normals, monthly dataset | https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/services/data/v1 | retrieved July 26, 2026.
The California schools, unambiguously. UCLA and USC share a January low of 48.9F and a July high of 82.0F, which is the mildest combination in the set. Berkeley is the outlier within the outlier: a January low of 43.3F paired with a July high of just 74.2F.
That Berkeley July figure is a genuine marine-layer effect, not a data error. Berkeley is the coolest summer campus of the 31 by more than five degrees.
Stanford at 39.0F and 79.4F is the fourth mild-climate option, and after that the table drops into genuine winters.
Warm is not the same as mild, and the table separates them. Austin at a 41.8F January low and a 96.6F July high is warm year-round in a way that includes a genuinely hot summer.
Fort Worth at 35.3F and 95.7F, Athens at 33.8F and 92.0F, and Nashville at 30.1F and 90.9F are the southern cluster: mild winters, hot summers.
Provo is the strangest row in the table. A January low of 23.8F alongside a July high of 95.2F produces a 71.4 degree annual swing, the largest of any city here.
Minneapolis at 8.8F, Madison at 11.8F, Ithaca at 14.6F, Ann Arbor at 16.2F and South Bend at 17.0F are real winters, and prospective students from warm states consistently underestimate them.
Two mitigating facts worth knowing. Minneapolis and Madison are both compact cities with strong transit, and Minnesota's campus is served by light rail, which changes a cold commute considerably.
Ithaca is the hardest case in this set: cold, snowy, and car-dependent, which is a combination worth understanding before you commit three years to it.
Less than applicants think in year one and more than they think in year three. Nobody chooses a law school on climate, and plenty of people spend three winters regretting that they did not weigh it at all.
The practical version of the question is not whether you like snow. It is whether the combination of climate and transit produces a life you can sustain: a cold city with rail is a different experience from a cold town where you scrape a windshield twice a day.
Cross-reference this table against our transit table before deciding it does not matter. Minneapolis is cold and walkable; Ithaca is cold and not.
UCLA and USC share the mildest profile in the set at a 48.9F January low and 82.0F July high, which is Los Angeles rather than either campus specifically. Berkeley is milder still in summer at a 74.2F July high, the coolest in this table by more than five degrees.
Minneapolis at an 8.8F January low is the coldest, followed by Madison at 11.8F, Ithaca at 14.6F, Ann Arbor at 16.2F and South Bend at 17.0F. Those five are genuine northern winters and applicants from warm states consistently underestimate them.
Provo produces the largest annual swing at 71.4 degrees, from a 23.8F January low to a 95.2F July high. Austin at 96.6F has the hottest summer, and Fort Worth at 95.7F is close behind.
The mildest overall combination, balancing both ends, is the Bay Area: Berkeley and Stanford both avoid extreme cold and extreme heat in a way no other campus in this set manages.
Cold plus rail is manageable; cold plus a required car is a different daily life. Minneapolis is the coldest city here and one of the most transit-served, with light rail through campus, which changes the winter commute considerably.
Ithaca is the hardest combination in this set: cold, snowy and car-dependent. Ann Arbor, Madison and South Bend share the same pairing to a lesser degree.
If you are weighing climate at all, weigh it against the transit column rather than in isolation. A cold walkable city and a cold car town are not the same choice, and the second is the one people underestimate.
Every number in the table comes from a primary disclosure: each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for admissions, cost and aid, and its class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary for outcomes. Both are filed annually and both are free to read.
We did not use rankings, surveys or reputation. Where a figure required arithmetic, such as a percentage or a net cost, we state that it is our arithmetic and give the inputs so you can check it.
Where we could not verify something, the table says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate. That is why some rows read not published or not verified instead of carrying a number that would look more complete and mean less.
It cannot tell you your outcome. Every figure here describes a class of several hundred people, and your position inside that distribution is set by first-year grades that have not happened yet.
It cannot price your offer, because aid depends on where your numbers sit against each school's medians rather than on the median award. Half of every school's grant recipients got less than the figure shown.
And it cannot capture fit, culture, or whether you will do your best work in that building for three years. Those are discoverable only by visiting and asking current students specific questions, which is worth more than any table on this site.
It should be a tiebreaker between schools you would otherwise choose between, not a driver. Nobody has ever regretted a legal career because of January, and plenty of people have underweighted three winters they had never experienced.
The version of the question worth asking is about daily life rather than temperature: how far you walk, whether you drive, and whether the city gives you somewhere to be in February.
Which is why this table is most useful read alongside the transit table rather than alone.
UCLA and USC, both with a 48.9F January low and 82.0F July high. Berkeley is milder in summer than either, at a 74.2F July high, which is a genuine marine-layer effect.
Austin at a 96.6F July high, Fort Worth at 95.7F, Provo at 95.2F and Athens at 92.0F are the hottest summers. Austin and Fort Worth combine that with mild winters; Provo does not.
Minnesota, at an average January low of 8.8F in Minneapolis, followed by Wisconsin at 11.8F in Madison and Cornell at 14.6F in Ithaca.
It should be a tiebreaker rather than a driver, and it interacts with transit. A cold city with rail transit is a very different daily experience from a cold town where a car is required.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026