Bolivar, Missouri climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Bolivar's normal year runs from 22°F January nights to 89°F July afternoons, with 46.4 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 13.3°C, January lows of −6°C, July highs of 32°C, 1,178 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationBolivar (1 mi NE)
- Station IDUSC00230789
- Location37.62°N 93.39°W
- Elevation987 ft (301 m)
- Population11,549
On October 22, the normal high in Bolivar is 68°F and the normal low 42°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 31%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Bolivar.
- Jan 43° 22°
- Feb 48° 25°
- Mar 58° 34°
- Apr 68° 44°
- May 76° 54°
- Jun 84° 63°
- Jul 89° 67°
- Aug 88° 65°
- Sep 81° 57°
- Oct 70° 45°
- Nov 57° 34°
- Dec 46° 26°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Bolivar each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 89°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 22°F. The most precipitation falls in May (5.90 in), the least in February (2.25 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43°F | 22°F | 32.2°F | 2.31 | 8 | <1 | 26 | 9 h 50 min |
| February | 48°F | 25°F | 36.6°F | 2.25 | 8 | <1 | 22 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 58°F | 34°F | 45.8°F | 3.59 | 11 | <1 | 14 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 68°F | 44°F | 55.5°F | 4.96 | 11 | <1 | 4 | 13 h 10 min |
| May | 76°F | 54°F | 65.1°F | 5.90 | 13 | 1 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| June | 84°F | 63°F | 73.7°F | 4.88 | 11 | 6 | <1 | 14 h 40 min |
| July | 89°F | 67°F | 78.0°F | 4.62 | 9 | 15 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| August | 88°F | 65°F | 76.8°F | 3.71 | 8 | 14 | <1 | 13 h 40 min |
| September | 81°F | 57°F | 68.8°F | 4.25 | 8 | 5 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 70°F | 45°F | 57.1°F | 3.79 | 9 | <1 | 4 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 57°F | 34°F | 45.7°F | 3.42 | 9 | <1 | 14 | 10 h 10 min |
| December | 46°F | 26°F | 36.1°F | 2.70 | 7 | <1 | 24 | 9 h 40 min |
| Year (annual) | 67°F | 45°F | 56.0°F | 46.38 | 110 | 41 | 108 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 6°C | −6°C | 0.1°C | 59 mm |
| February | 9°C | −4°C | 2.6°C | 57 mm |
| March | 14°C | 1°C | 7.7°C | 91 mm |
| April | 20°C | 6°C | 13.1°C | 126 mm |
| May | 24°C | 12°C | 18.4°C | 150 mm |
| June | 29°C | 17°C | 23.2°C | 124 mm |
| July | 32°C | 19°C | 25.6°C | 117 mm |
| August | 31°C | 18°C | 24.9°C | 94 mm |
| September | 27°C | 14°C | 20.4°C | 108 mm |
| October | 21°C | 7°C | 13.9°C | 96 mm |
| November | 14°C | 1°C | 7.6°C | 87 mm |
| December | 8°C | −4°C | 2.3°C | 69 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station. The nearest record that keeps one, Buffalo (16 miles away), gets 9 inches of snow in a normal year; elevation and distance can change that.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00230789; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
When is the best weather to visit Bolivar?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, June, September and October. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (8).
That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00230789.
When is the last frost in Bolivar?
In Bolivar, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 14 in half of years and after May 2 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 23 in half of years and before October 8 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- April 141 year in 10 after May 2; 9 in 10 after March 29
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 231 year in 10 before October 8; 9 in 10 before November 4
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 188 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 211 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 1 in half of springs and before November 1 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Bolivar in zone 6b in ZIP code 65613, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Bolivar's NOAA station is in zone 6b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −1°F (26 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Missouri · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00230789; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get in Bolivar?
In a normal year in Bolivar, 41 days a year reach 90°F (3 of them 100°F or more), 108 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 110 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 41a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 3a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 108a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 16high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 110a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1900) is 115°F, on July 14, 1954; the lowest is −25°F, on January 13, 1912.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2015, with 66.97 in; the snowiest season is 1939–40, with 24.7 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00230789; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00230789. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Bolivar?
Over a year 76% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Bolivar, 4.3 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (82%) and February the cloudiest (67%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 71% | 2.4 |
| February | 67% | 3.0 |
| March | 69% | 4.0 |
| April | 72% | 5.1 |
| May | 73% | 5.7 |
| June | 82% | 6.6 |
| July | 82% | 6.4 |
| August | 81% | 5.7 |
| September | 82% | 4.9 |
| October | 76% | 3.6 |
| November | 73% | 2.6 |
| December | 69% | 2.0 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How much heating and cooling does Bolivar need?
A normal year in Bolivar brings 4,630 heating degree days, 14% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,366 cooling degree days, 51% more than the median (908). Six months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 4,114 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,015 | 0 |
| February | 794 | 0 |
| March | 601 | 4 |
| April | 306 | 22 |
| May | 100 | 101 |
| June | 8 | 268 |
| July | 1 | 405 |
| August | 2 | 367 |
| September | 52 | 166 |
| October | 273 | 30 |
| November | 582 | 3 |
| December | 897 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 4,630 | 1,366 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00230789. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Has Bolivar been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 56.8°F, 0.8°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 56.0°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 57.0°F | +1.0°F | 59.18 |
| 2022 | 56.2°F | +0.2°F | 47.69 |
| 2023 | 58.5°F | +2.5°F | 37.82 |
| 2024 | 59.1°F | +3.1°F | 49.49 |
| 2025 | 56.8°F | +0.8°F | 36.61 |
Over 79 complete years from 1908 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 0.1°F per century (+0.00°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00230789; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Bolivar's climate compare?
Bolivar is warmer than 89 of the other 133 places with their own NOAA record in Missouri, and wetter than 90. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 56.0°F is warmer than 64%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Bolivar is Cfa: temperate, no dry season, hot summer. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Bolivar share this climate record?
4 places have no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of their own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.
- Pleasant Hope, MO692 people · 12 mi SE
- Fair Play, MO450 people · 10 mi W
- Morrisville, MO398 people · 10 mi S
- Aldrich, MO69 people · 10 mi SW
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Bolivar's climate
What is the coldest month in Bolivar?
January, with a normal high of 43°F and a normal low of 22°F. The warmest is July (89°F by day, 67°F at night).
Does it snow in Bolivar?
Yes. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Bolivar's NOAA station; the nearest record that keeps one, Buffalo (16 miles away), records 9 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Bolivar?
May, with 5.90 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 2.25 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Bolivar in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Bolivar in zone 6b in ZIP code 65613, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Bolivar's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −1°F (26 years, 1991-2020): zone 6b.
How late can frost come in Bolivar?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 14; in one year in ten it comes after May 2. Waiting until May 2 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Missouri climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Buffalo, MO16 miles from this station, 55.0°F a year
- Pomme De Terre Dam, MO21 miles from this station, 56.6°F a year
- Stockton, MO22 miles from this station, 57.5°F a year
- Springfield, MO26 miles from this station, 57.4°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made