What to wear in 70 degree weather

7 October 2026 · 7 min read

At a feels-like 70°F (21°C), wear a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. That's it. The question most people are really asking is whether it's hoodie weather, and the answer is no, by eight degrees.

Google's own answer to this search says to wear "a single comfortable layer", which is true and doesn't help much. So we ran 70°F through Comfie's outfit engine and looked for the edges instead: where the hoodie stops, where long sleeves stop, where jeans give way. Seventy turns out to sit comfortably inside one band, and the one thing worth planning for is the evening.

What to wear when it's 70 degrees

At a feels-like 70°F (21°C), wear a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. That's Comfie's outfit for the whole 68 to 74°F (20 to 23°C) band. A long sleeve only wins below 68°F, a hoodie below 62°F, and shorts don't become the default until 80°F. Carry a layer only if you'll be out after sunset.

Every row below comes straight out of the engine, the same code that runs the demo on this site.

Swipe the table sideways for the rest of each row.

Seventy sits two degrees inside its band. A forecast that's off by a degree or two still lands you in the same clothes, which almost never happens at 30 or 40.

Rather not check a table before you leave? The live demo does it from your city name, no download.

Is 70 degrees hoodie weather?

No. Comfie's hoodie band runs from 52 to 61°F (11 to 16°C), so 70°F is eight degrees past the warm end of it.

Here's the arithmetic. The engine gives every layer a warmth number and builds a stack that hits a target for your top half. A t-shirt is worth 2. A long sleeve and a hoodie are worth 3 each. From 52 to 61°F the target is 5, which is a t-shirt with a hoodie over it. At 70°F the target is 2. A t-shirt and hoodie together are two and a half times what the day asks for.

You'll know within the first hour. The hoodie comes off, gets tied around your waist, and stays there until evening. If you're on the fence about where that line sits in cooler weather, what temperature is hoodie weather goes through the whole band.

And if a hoodie is really what you want to wear (some of us just like them), make it a thin one, and plan on taking it off.

The two degrees that change the outfit: 67 and 75

Because 70°F sits in the middle of its band, the interesting numbers are on either side of it.

• 67 to 68°F (19 to 20°C). The long sleeve becomes a t-shirt. The target drops from 3 points to 2. If your morning reads 66 and your afternoon reads 72, this is the line you cross.
• 74 to 75°F (23 to 24°C). Jeans become lighter pants, like chinos or linen. Still long, just thinner. The top half doesn't change.

Nothing else moves between 68 and 74. Same shoes, same top, same bottoms.

Jeans or shorts at 70 degrees?

Jeans. Comfie keeps them on right up to 74°F (23°C) and doesn't make shorts the default until a feels-like 80°F (27°C). That's ten degrees of daylight between 70 and the shorts line.

Some guides tell you to avoid jeans at 70. We'd push back on that. A regular pair of jeans at 70°F is fine; it's the shorts that are the stretch. That said, people who run hot genuinely do reach for shorts at 70, and that's a fair call (I'd do it too, on a sunny one). What temperature is shorts weather covers exactly how far personal preference can move that line.

The 70 degree day that ends at 55

This is the part that actually trips people up.

You check the forecast at 8am. The high is 70. You leave in a t-shirt, and by 3pm you've made a great call. Then the sun goes down. Temperatures commonly fall 10 to 15°F (6 to 8°C) after sunset, so a 70 degree afternoon becomes a 55 to 60°F (13 to 16°C) evening. Look back at the table: that's squarely hoodie weather.

So the answer at 70°F has two parts. Wear the t-shirt. Carry the hoodie. It's the right layer for the evening, and it's the one you'd have been too warm in all afternoon.

Mornings work the same way in reverse. A 70°F high can start in the 50s, especially in spring and fall, which is why cold morning, warm afternoon exists as its own post. Dress for the warmer part of the day and carry the layer for the cooler part.

When sun, wind or rain change the answer

They don't change the clothes. They add things to them.

• Strong sun. At a UV index of 6 or higher between 9am and 4pm, a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen join the outfit. In late spring and summer, that's a lot of 70 degree days.
• Wind of 20 mph or more. A thin windbreaker goes over the t-shirt. Below 20 mph, nothing changes.
• A 50% chance of rain or more. Bring an umbrella. Rain all day swaps the sneakers for rain boots.
• Rain plus wind past 20 mph. An umbrella would flip inside out, so a rain jacket goes over the t-shirt instead.

Wind matters less here than at the cold end of the scale. At 40°F a 3 mph breeze moves you into a different coat, because the US wind chill formula is steep at low speeds. That formula only applies at 50°F and below, so a breeze can't drag a 70 degree day into hoodie weather the same way.

One more thing. The number to dress for is the feels-like, not the air temperature, because humidity and sun can push it a few degrees either way. Feels like vs actual temperature explains how far they drift apart.

Same 70 degrees, two different people

The app (not this website) asks at setup whether you run hot or cold, and shifts the feels-like number 4 degrees either way. At 70°F:

• Runs cold, 4 degrees down. Effectively 66°F. A long sleeve instead of the t-shirt.
• Neutral. 70°F. T-shirt and jeans.
• Runs hot, 4 degrees up. Effectively 74°F. Still a t-shirt and jeans, on the last degree before lighter pants.

The app also learns from your ratings, by up to 6 more degrees. At the far ends, the same 70°F forecast runs all the way from a hoodie (effectively 60°F) to shorts (effectively 80°F). Which is why two people can walk out of the same building on the same afternoon dressed for completely different days, and both be right.

Quick answers

Do I need a jacket at 70 degrees?

Not to wear. At a feels-like 70°F (21°C) a t-shirt does the whole job, and a jacket only gets carried. Take one if you'll be out after sunset, when a 70 degree afternoon commonly falls into the high 50s. The exception is wind of 20 mph or more, which adds a thin windbreaker.

Is 70 degrees warm enough for just a t-shirt?

Yes. A t-shirt is Comfie's top half for every feels-like temperature from 68 to 84°F (20 to 29°C), and 70°F sits near the bottom of that range. Go two degrees cooler, to 67°F (19°C), and a long sleeve replaces it.

Is 70 degrees cold at night?

70°F itself isn't, but a 70 degree day rarely stays there. Temperatures commonly drop 10 to 15°F (6 to 8°C) after sunset, which puts the evening at 55 to 60°F (13 to 16°C). That's hoodie weather, so bring one if you'll be out late.

What should I wear in 70 degree weather to school?

A t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, with a hoodie in your bag. School starts in the cooler morning and plenty of classrooms are air conditioned, so check the feels-like at the time you leave. Under 68°F (20°C) wear a long sleeve, and under 62°F (17°C) wear the hoodie.

So what do you wear today?

Three checks, in this order:

1. The feels-like number. From 68 to 74°F (20 to 23°C), a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers. A long sleeve under 68°F, a hoodie under 62°F.
2. The evening. Out after sunset? Carry the hoodie.
3. The sun. UV of 6 or more, add a hat and sunscreen. For the cooler neighbor, see what to wear in 60 degree weather, and if a jacket is on your mind, do I need a jacket today.

Seventy degrees? T-shirt on, hoodie in the bag.

Let Comfie do the checking

The live demo on the homepage runs these exact bands against real weather, sun and wind included. Type your city and you'll see whether today is t-shirt weather or something cooler, no download needed.

The iPhone app goes further. It learns whether you run hot or cold, so a 70 degree afternoon puts you in the layer you actually need. Free to download, no ads.

Where these numbers come from: Comfie's own outfit engine, the same code behind the app and the demo on this site. The demo's weather comes from Open-Meteo. Temperatures are feels-like unless stated, and Celsius is rounded to the nearest degree.