EDC Las Vegas: Festival Weather

Introduction

The Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) is a large electronic music festival held in Las Vegas at the Motor Speedway. It draws more than half a million people over the three days. It is schedule to be held May 17-19 in 2024. Most of the event is held at night and weather plays a critical part because of the nighttime light shows. Wind and hot temperatures have impacted the festival in previous years. It has been held in June in year past which has led to heat related illness. May is a much better month to hold this festival. There is a lot of camping at the festival too so cooling off at night is important. In this post I’ll examine why and show some stats about this particular weekend.

Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC) festival

Temperatures

We’re going to look at both high and low temperatures. Much of the festival happens after dark and with temperatures becoming hot during the day this works out well. Normal highs for the weekend of EDC are close to 90F/32C. Overnight, temperatures still cool pretty well and usually drop to about 67F/19C. After sunset, expect temperatures to drop and become quite pleasant in the evening.

Now lets look at last year on these dates. Last year (2023) was above normal during these dates. Highs ranged from 95F/35C to 97F/36C. Low temperatures never got below 73F/23C. Not quite hot but if you’re not used to it being this warm or are drinking something other than water, you could still have some dehydration issues.

The extremes for these dates are quite wide. On the hot side, the high temperature has been as high as 108F/42C in 2008. That same day also recorded a low of only 79F/26C. So while it was hot during the day it still cooled off pretty well at night. On the cold side, the lowest temperature ever was 43F/6C in 1962. While that sounds pretty cold for camping and enjoying the festival, the good news is it has not gotten below 50F/10C in 47 years! The reason for this is the urban heat island or the growth of the city of Las Vegas. The amount of concrete is preventing temperatures from plummeting to those extremes these days. In 2011 it dropped to 51F/11C but that is the only appearance on a 21st century low in the 25 coldest days. So while cold overnight lows are still technically possible, odds are not great of seeing less than 60F/16C. During the day it’s possible to not get to 80F since it has happened 5 times since 2011. The coldest day ever was in 1974 when it only got to 63F/17C on the 19th.

Rain

May is the 2nd driest month of the year. For more information about the entire month of May see our May climate guide post below. Only 7 times in the history of Las Vegas has measurable rain been recorded on any of these dates. The most being 2015 when 0.07” was recorded. And if you don’t know how much that is, it’s not much. So 97% of these dates have been dry or just had some sprinkles of rain.

Wind

The only bad thing about May is this is a transition season. With the battle for warm and cold air taking place, May is often the windiest month. This should be taken into consideration if you’re pitching a tent at EDC. Bring something sturdy to hold it down.

Conclusion

EDC is a very large electronic music festival with hundreds of thousands of people over the three day event. Fortunately, this event has been moved to May to avoid summer heat related illness. This weekend in May (17-19) can be hot during the day but nighttime temperatures drop off pretty well making for pleasant evenings. Occasionally, it can still be somewhat chilly but only 3% of the time does it rain.

Be sure to check our home page for the latest 10-day weather forecast!