Crested Butte, CO 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 Crested Butte's primary NOAA station, CRESTED BUTTE.
The climate verdict for Crested Butte
Crested Butte, Colorado 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
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 47/100
- comfort score, above 17% of station-mapped location scores
- 23.8"
- annual precipitation · 203" snow
Crested Butte: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00051959 · Crested Butte, CO 34°F mean · 23.8" precip
TEMP-COLD · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COLD 34°F
- RANK-COOL #69
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Soldotna
- PRCP-DRY 23.8"
- SWING-WIDE 48°F
- COMF-LOW 47/100
- LOAD-HEAT 11,209 HDD
- STN-1 USC00051959
- 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 CO station list.
- Crested Butte (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
Climate Living Index · Crested Butte
Crested Butte: 12/100 · grade F
Crested Butte publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Crested Butte, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 47/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 23.8 in · 11.2 from 35 in | 60/100 · C |
| Annual temperature balance | 34.2°F · 33.3° from 67.5°F | 0/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 268 calendar days | 0/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 203.0 inches/year | 0/100 · F |
Crested Butte · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Crested Butte is a continental Köppen climate: Dfc
Coldest-month mean 9.6°F and warmest-month mean 57.8°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
- 57.8°F
- Coldest month
- 9.6°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 Crested Butte sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Crested Butte'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, Crested Butte sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 33rd percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 74%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Crested Butte is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Crested Butte compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Crested Butte'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
Crested Butte's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 79 complete annual observations from 1911 to 2025, CRESTED BUTTE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.17°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Crested Butte primary station fitted change +0.17 °C/decade
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26°F (-3°C) | -6°F (-21°C) | 10°F (-12°C) | 2.7" | 42.2" | 31.0 | 0.0 |
| February | 29°F (-1°C) | -2°F (-19°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 2.5" | 35.2" | 28.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 38°F (3°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 2.1" | 29.1" | 31.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 47°F (8°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 2.0" | 19.4" | 29.5 | 0.0 |
| May | 58°F (15°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 1.5" | 6.7" | 24.8 | 0.0 |
| June | 70°F (21°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 0.9" | 0.3" | 12.6 | 0.0 |
| July | 76°F (24°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 1.8 | 0.0 |
| August | 74°F (23°C) | 38°F (4°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 3.3 | 0.0 |
| September | 66°F (19°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.9" | 1.2" | 17.8 | 0.0 |
| October | 54°F (12°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 1.7" | 8.5" | 28.4 | 0.0 |
| November | 39°F (4°C) | 9°F (-13°C) | 24°F (-4°C) | 2.0" | 25.3" | 29.9 | 0.0 |
| December | 27°F (-3°C) | -4°F (-20°C) | 11°F (-11°C) | 2.3" | 35.1" | 31.0 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 77°F around July 17, short of 90°F on every date, while 268 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest -7°F near January 1.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into June 6, then returns to freezing around September 13, covering 268 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 February 15, when 40% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is June 10 at 22%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 117 wet dates a year.
The widest day
July 1 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 38°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Crested Butte.
Where Crested Butte Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 268 nights a year, placing this among the most frost-prone tenth of ranked stations.
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 38°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Crested Butte 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: 42.2"
11.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 35.2"
11.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 29.1"
9.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 19.4"
9.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.7"
8.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
5.9 days with precipitation
10.4 days with precipitation
12.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.2"
9.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.5"
7.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 25.3"
8.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 35.1"
11.2 days with precipitation
Crested Butte spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 20% of the annual total and December through February 32%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Crested Butte has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 48.2°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: January averages 2.7" and June 0.9". The three wettest months together take 32% 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.
How Crested Butte's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 117 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 23.8" between them, or roughly 0.20 inches on a typical wet day. That sits in the middle band: neither the many-light-days pattern of the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes, nor the few-heavy-events pattern of the Gulf and the desert Southwest.
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 Crested Butte
Crested Butte averages 203.0 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 69 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: 203.0 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 69 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 85% 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
11,209
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside CO closest to Crested Butte 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).
- Cooke City, MT 34°F · 0.0°F off
- Kenai, AK 34°F · 0.0°F off
- Silver Gate, MT 34°F · 0.1°F off
- Soldotna, AK 34°F · 0.1°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (23.8" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Stapleton, NE 23.8" · 0.0" off
- Winters, CA 23.8" · 0.0" off
- Cascade, ID 23.8" · 0.0" off
- Jetmore, KS 23.7" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Crested Butte
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Crested Butte's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 11,209 annual heating degree days against 1 for cooling. Its 48.2°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 Crested Butte. That missing field is kept separate from the observed temperature and precipitation record rather than filled from a regional estimate.
-
1. Crested Butte coldest normal
January
Averaging 10°F (-12°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Crested Butte typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Crested Butte snow peak
January
Crested Butte averages 203.0 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Crested Butte's climate
How much snow does Crested Butte get? ▼
How cold does Crested Butte get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Crested Butte? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Crested Butte's primary station: CRESTED BUTTE (USC00051959). 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 0818310). Match rule for Crested Butte: 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 Crested Butte 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.