Billings, MT Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Explore NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 climate normals → and a clearly labeled PlainClimate comfort calculation
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Billings's primary NOAA station, BILLINGS WFO.
The climate verdict for Billings
Dryness leads the climate profile for Billings, Montana, with 14.8 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 48°F. At 49/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 18% of scores.
- 48°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 49/100
- comfort score, above 18% of station-mapped location scores
- 14.8"
- annual precipitation · 48" snow
- 151 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Billings: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00240801 · Billings, MT 48°F mean · 14.8" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 48°F
- RANK-COOL #2,127
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Saginaw Mbs
- PRCP-DRY 14.8"
- SWING-WIDE 47°F
- COMF-LOW 49/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,766 HDD
- STN-1 USC00240801
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Saginaw Mbs, MI (+ 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 MT station list.
- Billings (this station) 48°F
- Cold Hillsdale, MI 48°F
- Hot Whalen Dam Usbr, WY 48°F
- Near Saginaw Mbs, MI 48°F
- Near Eaton Rapids, MI 48°F
Billings sits in Montana, the #6 coldest U.S. state at 43.4°F statewide annual average - see all 50 coldest states ranked by NOAA normals
Climate Living Index · Billings
Billings: 27/100 · grade F
Billings publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Billings, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 49/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Annual temperature balance | 48.0°F · 19.5° from 67.5°F | 32/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 14.8 in · 20.2 from 35 in | 28/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 151 days/year | 26/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 183 calendar days | 23/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 48.2 inches/year | 22/100 · F |
Billings · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Billings is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 26.1°F and warmest-month mean 72.8°F place this station in continental, no dry season, hot summer climates (Dfa). Class Dfa is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, no dry season, hot summer.
- Köppen code
- Dfa
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 72.8°F
- Coldest month
- 26.1°F
Source: official public datasets monthly normals (1991–2020) at the city’s primary station. This is a station classification, not a mapped regional consensus.
National standing · heating-led station
Where Billings sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Billings's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 31st percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 83%
- Billings's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 67th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Billings compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Billings's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
49 18th percentile score exceeds 18% of 6,189 station-mapped location scores
- 0–10: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 10–20: 0 station-mapped locations (0%). Below this entry.
- 20–30: 96 station-mapped locations (2%). Below this entry.
- 30–40: 280 station-mapped locations (5%). Below this entry.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). This entry sits in this band.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Above this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Above this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). Above this entry.
- 80–90: 921 station-mapped locations (15%). Above this entry.
- 90–100: 564 station-mapped locations (9%). Above this entry.
Source NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, PlainClimate comfort index · 1991–2020
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37°F (3°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 0.6" | 9.2" | 29.0 | 0.0 |
| February | 41°F (5°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 29°F (-1°C) | 0.6" | 9.6" | 26.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 51°F (11°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 1.0" | 7.2" | 23.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 59°F (15°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 1.8" | 3.7" | 12.3 | 0.0 |
| May | 69°F (21°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.5" | 0.4" | 2.6 | 0.4 |
| June | 79°F (26°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 2.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.9 |
| July | 89°F (32°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 18.6 |
| August | 87°F (31°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 71°F (22°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 14.0 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 1.4" | 0.3" | 0.7 | 4.0 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 1.5" | 3.5" | 10.9 | 0.0 |
| November | 47°F (8°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 0.6" | 5.6" | 23.8 | 0.0 |
| December | 37°F (3°C) | 17°F (-9°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 0.6" | 8.7" | 29.0 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Billings works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 90°F by July 25 and hold at or above 90°F on 15 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 168 dates, bottoming at 15°F around January 1.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from July 20 through August 3, covering 15 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs May 19 to September 27.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 8, then returns to freezing around October 24, covering 168 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.
Where the wet dates fall
The likeliest wet date is May 25, when 43% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is December 1 at 18%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 98 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 22 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 33°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Billings.
Where Billings Stands Nationally
A drier-than-most normal water year — around 15 inches, below what four out of five ranked stations collect.
Daily temperature swings run wider than most of the country, peaking near 33°F between the normal high and low.
Billings earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 9.2"
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.6"
8.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 7.2"
7.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.7"
10.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.4"
12.7 days with precipitation
11.4 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
7.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
7.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.5"
8.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.6"
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.7"
6.2 days with precipitation
Billings spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 29% of the annual total and December through February 12%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Billings has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 46.7°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: May averages 2.5" and January 0.6". The three wettest months together take 43% of the year, against the 25% a perfectly flat distribution would give them.
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. "Spread across the year" means neither the June-August nor the December-February share reaches 35%; it describes an average year, not the variability of any single one.
Billings is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 98 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 27% of the calendar, and they carry 14.8" between them. At roughly 0.15 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is May at about 13 wet days; the driest is January at about 6.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Winter brings real snow to Billings
Billings averages 48.2 inches of snowfall a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 33 days that record measurable snow. That is depth accumulating on the ground, which is why it can exceed the annual precipitation figure: precipitation counts the liquid the snow melts down to, and fresh snow is mostly air.
- Annual snowfall: 48.2 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 33 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 33% of the year's precipitation.
NOAA 1991-2020 normals. The ten-to-one ratio is a convention, not a measurement: real ratios vary with temperature, so treat the share as an order of magnitude rather than an exact split.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
October 3
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 5
50% probability date
Growing Season
151 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,766
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
606
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside MT closest to Billings 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 (48°F here).
- Ames, IA 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Barrington, IL 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Big Bear Lake, CA 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Boscobel, WI 48°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (14.8" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Mccamey, TX 14.8" · 0.0" off
- Lingle, WY 14.8" · 0.0" off
- Trinidad, CO 14.9" · 0.0" off
- Torrington, WY 14.8" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Billings
heating led · dry · mid swing
Billings's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,766 annual heating degree days against 606 for cooling. Its 46.7°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Billings's frost-free season lasts about 151 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Billings coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 26°F (-3°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Billings typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Billings snow peak
February
Billings averages 48.2 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Billings's climate
How much snow does Billings get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Billings get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Billings? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Billings's primary station: BILLINGS WFO (USC00240801). 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 3006550). Match rule for Billings: 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 Billings 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.