Cooke City, 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 Cooke City's primary NOAA station, COOKE CITY 2 W.
The climate verdict for Cooke City
Cooke City, Montana has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 34°F. At 47/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 17% of scores.
- 34°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 47/100
- comfort score, above 17% of station-mapped location scores
- 26.6"
- annual precipitation · 213" snow
Cooke City: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00241995 · Cooke City, MT 34°F mean · 26.6" precip
TEMP-COLD · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COLD 34°F
- RANK-COOL #69
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Soldotna
- PRCP-MID 26.6"
- SWING-MID 42°F
- COMF-LOW 47/100
- LOAD-HEAT 11,222 HDD
- STN-1 USC00241995
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Soldotna, AK ( -0.1 °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.
- Cooke City (this station) 34°F
- Cold Soldotna, AK 34°F
- Hot Hayes River, AK 34°F
- Near Campbell Creek…, AK 34°F
- Near Snake Rvr, WY 34°F
Cooke City 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 · Cooke City
Cooke City: 14/100 · grade F
Cooke City publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Cooke City, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 47/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 26.6 in · 8.4 from 35 in | 70/100 · B |
| Annual temperature balance | 34.2°F · 33.3° from 67.5°F | 0/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 264 calendar days | 0/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 213.1 inches/year | 0/100 · F |
Cooke City · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Cooke City is a continental Köppen climate: Dfc
Coldest-month mean 14.3°F and warmest-month mean 56.3°F place this station in continental, no dry season, cool summer climates (Dfc). Class Dfc is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, no dry season, cool summer.
- Köppen code
- Dfc
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 56.3°F
- Coldest month
- 14.3°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 Cooke City sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Cooke City's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 99%
- Among 6,861 stations, Cooke City sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 36th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 44th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Cooke City compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Cooke City's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
47 17th percentile score exceeds 17% 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 | 24°F (-4°C) | 6°F (-15°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 2.2" | 38.8" | 31.0 | 0.0 |
| February | 29°F (-2°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 2.0" | 29.7" | 28.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 37°F (3°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 1.9" | 31.0" | 30.5 | 0.0 |
| April | 43°F (6°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 2.3" | 22.4" | 29.4 | 0.0 |
| May | 54°F (12°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 2.9" | 9.0" | 25.4 | 0.0 |
| June | 64°F (18°C) | 35°F (1°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 3.2" | 3.4" | 11.4 | 0.0 |
| July | 74°F (23°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 2.1 | 0.1 |
| August | 71°F (22°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 5.7 | 0.0 |
| September | 62°F (17°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 1.7" | 1.0" | 19.7 | 0.0 |
| October | 47°F (8°C) | 24°F (-4°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 2.2" | 13.4" | 28.3 | 0.0 |
| November | 31°F (-1°C) | 13°F (-10°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 2.2" | 26.5" | 29.6 | 0.0 |
| December | 22°F (-5°C) | 6°F (-14°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 2.1" | 37.9" | 30.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 75°F around July 22, short of 90°F on every date, while 264 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 5°F near January 1.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into May 31, then returns to freezing around September 11, covering 264 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 January 2, when 56% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is September 24 at 32%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 159 wet dates a year.
The widest day
July 17 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 35°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Cooke City.
Where Cooke City Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 264 nights a year, placing this among the most frost-prone tenth of ranked stations.
Daily temperature swings run wider than most of the country, peaking near 35°F between the normal high and low.
Cooke City 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: 38.8"
17.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 29.7"
13.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 31.0"
13.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 22.4"
13.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.0"
14.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.4"
14.5 days with precipitation
11.1 days with precipitation
10.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.0"
9.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 13.4"
11.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 26.5"
13.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 37.9"
17.2 days with precipitation
Cooke City spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 26% of the annual total and December through February 24%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Cooke City has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a 42°F seasonal spread.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: June averages 3.2" and September 1.7". The three wettest months together take 31% 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.
Rain reaches Cooke City in small, frequent amounts
Cooke City records about 159 days with measurable precipitation a year and 26.6" in total, which works out to roughly 0.17 inches on an average wet day. Precipitation on 43% of all days, arriving that lightly, is the damp many-grey-days pattern rather than the storm-driven one.
Places in this band read as wetter than their annual totals suggest, because what people notice is the number of overcast days, not the depth in the gauge.
- Most wet days: January, about 17 of them.
- Fewest: September, about 10.
- Average depth per wet day: 0.17 inches.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year and say nothing about the heaviest single storm on record.
Winter brings real snow to Cooke City
Cooke City averages 213.1 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 91 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: 213.1 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 91 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 80% 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
N/A
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
N/A
50% probability date
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
11,222
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside MT closest to Cooke City 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 (34°F here).
- Crested Butte, CO 34°F · 0.0°F off
- Kenai, AK 34°F · 0.0°F off
- Soldotna, AK 34°F · 0.1°F off
- Stanley, ID 34°F · 0.2°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (26.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Ericson, NE 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Fosston, MN 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Garden Valley, ID 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Franklin, NE 26.5" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Cooke City
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Cooke City's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 11,222 annual heating degree days against 1 for cooling. Its 42.0°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
A frost-free growing-season length is not available for Cooke City. That missing field is kept separate from the observed temperature and precipitation record rather than filled from a regional estimate.
-
1. Cooke City coldest normal
December
Averaging 14°F (-10°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Cooke City typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Cooke City snow peak
January
Cooke City averages 213.1 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Cooke City's climate
How much snow does Cooke City get? ▼
How cold does Cooke City get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Cooke City? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Cooke City's primary station: COOKE CITY 2 W (USC00241995). 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 a census-designated place (GEOID 3017350), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Cooke City: 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 Cooke City 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.