Alpena, MI Climate: Temperature by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Alpena's primary NOAA station, ALPENA 10NW.
The climate verdict for Alpena
Alpena, Michigan has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 44°F. July is the warmest month at 67°F and January the coldest at 19°F.
- 44°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 143 days
- frost-free growing season
Alpena: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00200166 · Alpena, MI 44°F mean
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-UNK · SWING-WIDE · COMF-UNK · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-PART
- TEMP-COOL 44°F
- RANK-COOL #892
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Sweetgrass
- PRCP-UNK Rain n/a
- SWING-WIDE 49°F
- COMF-UNK Comfort n/a
- LOAD-HEAT 8,129 HDD
- STN-1 USC00200166
- BOOK-PART 4/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Sweetgrass, MT (+ 0 °F mean)
Instrument codes from this station's NOAA 1991–2020 normals, mean temperature, corpus warmth rank, photo-finish peer station, precipitation band, seasonal swing, comfort composite, degree-day load, and field book, not a livability rating.
Mean-temperature neighbourhood
Nationwide NOAA normal poles and nearest peers, not a reprint of every MI station list.
- Alpena (this station) 44°F
- Hot Gouverneur, NY 44°F
- Near Sweetgrass, MT 44°F
- Cold Atlanta, MI 43°F
- Near Ellenburg Depot, NY 43°F
Climate Living Index · Alpena
Alpena: 20/100 · grade F
Alpena publishes 3 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 3 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Alpena, not an official NOAA rating. Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 178 calendar days | 26/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 143 days/year | 20/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 43.5°F · 24.0° from 67.5°F | 14/100 · F |
Alpena · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method .
National standing · heating-led station
Where Alpena sits across the climate record
Available NOAA 1991–2020 fields for Alpena are ranked only against stations that publish the same field, missing metrics stay blank rather than estimated.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 87%
- Among 6,861 stations, Alpena sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 76%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Alpena is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26°F (-3°C) | 11°F (-12°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | N/A | 30.4 | 0.0 |
| February | 29°F (-2°C) | 10°F (-12°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | N/A | 27.3 | 0.0 |
| March | 39°F (4°C) | 17°F (-8°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | N/A | 28.3 | 0.0 |
| April | 51°F (11°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 40°F (5°C) | N/A | 19.3 | 0.1 |
| May | 65°F (18°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 53°F (12°C) | N/A | 4.2 | 0.3 |
| June | 76°F (24°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | N/A | 0.2 | 2.1 |
| July | 79°F (26°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 67°F (20°C) | N/A | 0.0 | 3.3 |
| August | 80°F (26°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 67°F (19°C) | N/A | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| September | 70°F (21°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 58°F (15°C) | N/A | 1.0 | 0.9 |
| October | 57°F (14°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 47°F (8°C) | N/A | 13.5 | 0.1 |
| November | 43°F (6°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 35°F (2°C) | N/A | 20.7 | 0.0 |
| December | 32°F (0°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | N/A | 28.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 81°F around August 5, short of 90°F on every date, while 178 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 9°F near January 30.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 23, then returns to freezing around October 29, covering 178 dates in all.
Derived from the normal daily minimum. This is a different measure from the 50%-probability frost dates shown elsewhere on this page, which come from NOAA’s frost product.
The widest day
August 20 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 26°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Alpena.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
October 3
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 13
50% probability date
Growing Season
143 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,129
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
327
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside MI closest to Alpena on two NOAA annual-normal axes (mean temperature and annual precipitation). Chip rows use distinct link sets.
Closest by average temperature
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual mean temperature (44°F here).
- Amery, WI 44°F · 0.0°F off
- Blanca, CO 44°F · 0.0°F off
- Bynum, MT 44°F · 0.0°F off
- Gouverneur, NY 44°F · 0.0°F off
Data-derived climate profile
How Alpena's climate pattern fits together
heating led · mid swing
Alpena's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,129 annual heating degree days against 327 for cooling. Its 48.7°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 143 days are frost-free in a normal year. That short interval is consistent with the cold-season signal, but the measure does not predict the exact first or last freeze in any one year.
July and January mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Alpena's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 48.7°F. The annual average is 44°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
A moisture-range label is withheld because Alpena's annual precipitation total is unavailable. Monthly source values remain visible where NOAA provides them, and no annual amount is reconstructed from incomplete data.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Alpena's primary station, so the winter figures are a thirty-year average and not a floor: a single hard season can run well below them. Treat each band as a descriptive range for Alpena, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Alpena's climate
How cold does Alpena get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Alpena? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Alpena's primary station: ALPENA 10NW (USC00200166). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The 2024 Census Gazetteer identifies the exact name-and-state match as an incorporated place (GEOID 2601740). Match rule for Alpena: exact normalized name + state only, no fuzzy expansion, so nearby differently spelled facilities stay unmatched.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Alpena comes from its primary NOAA station record. No figure on this page is typed in by an editor - each value is rendered from NOAA 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 1991–2020 normals.