Big Bear weather forecast
Loading the National Weather Service forecast for Big Bear Lake…
Be told when weather closes the roads
Why Big Bear weather is not the weather down the hill
Big Bear Lake sits at about 6,750 feet. The communities most visitors drive up from are near sea level, and the difference is not a detail — it is most of the story.
As a rule of thumb, air cools roughly 3 to 5°F for every thousand feet you climb. A pleasant 75°F afternoon in San Bernardino is commonly in the 50s up here, and a mild winter day down there is often below freezing at the lake. People arrive dressed for the valley floor far more often than they arrive dressed for the mountain.
The same applies to rain. A storm that produces rain in the basin frequently produces snow in Big Bear, and the boundary between the two moves during the storm — which is exactly what makes the drive up unpredictable.
Storms, snow and getting up the hill
The forecast above tells you what the weather will do. It does not tell you whether you can get here — and in winter those are different questions.
Three state highways serve the valley, and they top out at very different elevations. A storm can require chains on one and leave another clear, because the snow level lands between them. Checking the forecast alone and setting off is the single most common way people get caught out.
Check road conditions and chain control before you drive — that page joins the forecast snow level to each highway's elevation, and it is the one to look at when the forecast says snow.
What the seasons actually look like here
- Winter — cold, with overnight temperatures regularly below freezing and snow from roughly November into April. Snowfall varies enormously year to year; a quiet winter and a heavy one look nothing alike.
- Spring — the most changeable season. Warm afternoons and freezing nights in the same week, and late storms well into April.
- Summer — warm days and genuinely cool nights, which surprises people. Afternoon thunderstorms build over the mountains in late summer and can arrive quickly. The sun is strong at this elevation.
- Autumn — often the settled season, with clear air and cold mornings, and the first snow can arrive earlier than visitors expect.
Whatever the season, the reliable advice is the same: bring more layers than the forecast temperature suggests, because the overnight swing here is large.
Related conditions
- Road conditions and chain control — whether you can get up or down.
- Power outages — storms and fire weather are the usual cause.
- Wildfire activity near Big Bear — hot, dry, windy weather is fire weather.
- Lake conditions — water temperature and level.
How this page works
The forecast above comes directly from the National Weather Service office that covers Big Bear Valley, refreshed automatically. Nothing on this page is written by hand or estimated.
If the forecast cannot be retrieved, this page says so rather than showing an empty panel that could be mistaken for calm weather. An official warning always overrides anything here.