Dalton, NE Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Dalton's primary NOAA station, DALTON.
The climate verdict for Dalton
Dalton, Nebraska has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 50°F. Its climate comfort score of 59/100 (moderate) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 37% of station-mapped location scores.
- 50°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 59/100
- comfort score, above 37% of station-mapped location scores
- 20.5"
- annual precipitation · 48" snow
- 168 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Dalton: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00252145 · Dalton, NE 50°F mean · 20.5" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 50°F
- RANK-MID #2,744
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Warsaw
- PRCP-DRY 20.5"
- SWING-MID 45°F
- COMF-MID 59/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,192 HDD
- STN-1 USC00252145
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Warsaw, IN (+ 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 NE station list.
- Dalton (this station) 50°F
- Hot Jerome, ID 50°F
- Near Warsaw, IN 50°F
- Near Young America, IN 50°F
- Near Goshen, IN 50°F
Climate Living Index · Dalton
Dalton: 42/100 · grade D
Dalton publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Dalton, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 59/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 20.5 in · 14.5 from 35 in | 49/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 148 calendar days | 48/100 · D |
| Annual temperature balance | 50.0°F · 17.5° from 67.5°F | 40/100 · D |
| Frost-free season | 168 days/year | 40/100 · D |
| Snowfall burden | 48.1 inches/year | 22/100 · F |
Dalton · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Dalton is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 29.5°F and warmest-month mean 74.3°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
- 74.3°F
- Coldest month
- 29.5°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 Dalton sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Dalton's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 40th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 71%
- Dalton's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 57th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Dalton compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Dalton's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
59 37th percentile score exceeds 37% 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%). Below this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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
Dalton's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 44 complete annual observations from 1962 to 2015, DALTON warmed at a fitted rate of 0.21°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Dalton primary station fitted change +0.21 °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 | 39°F (4°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 30°F (-1°C) | 0.5" | 7.3" | 28.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 41°F (5°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 31°F (-1°C) | 0.6" | 8.8" | 25.8 | 0.0 |
| March | 51°F (11°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 1.1" | 6.1" | 23.7 | 0.0 |
| April | 59°F (15°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 2.3" | 6.4" | 13.7 | 0.0 |
| May | 69°F (20°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 3.5" | 1.6" | 2.3 | 0.6 |
| June | 81°F (27°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 3.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 4.5 |
| July | 87°F (31°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 74°F (24°C) | 2.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 13.5 |
| August | 85°F (29°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 9.4 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 1.9" | 0.2" | 0.6 | 2.3 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 1.6" | 3.1" | 9.3 | 0.0 |
| November | 49°F (9°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 0.7" | 5.6" | 23.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 40°F (4°C) | 20°F (-6°C) | 30°F (-1°C) | 0.6" | 9.0" | 28.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 88°F around July 20, short of 90°F on every date, while 148 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 19°F near February 2.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 28, then returns to freezing around November 2, covering 148 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 June 3, when 35% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is November 27 at 11%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 77 wet dates a year.
The widest day
June 29 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 Dalton.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 7.3"
3.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.8"
4.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.1"
5.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.4"
8.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.6"
9.7 days with precipitation
9.9 days with precipitation
7.9 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.2"
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.1"
5.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.6"
3.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.0"
3.6 days with precipitation
Dalton runs a summer-peaked wet season
38% of Dalton's yearly precipitation falls in June, July and August alone, against the 25% an evenly spread year would give those three months. The wettest month is May at 3.5", on a 44.8°F seasonal spread. Warm-season convection and, across the Southwest, the North American monsoon produce this shape: rain arrives in short heavy bursts during the hottest part of the year rather than as long cool-season soaking.
- Wettest three months: May, June, July, taking 46% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 0.5".
- Winter share: 8% falls in December, January and February.
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A summer-peaked label means the June-August share reaches 35%; it describes timing across an average year, not any single season, and says nothing about how heavy an individual storm can be.
How Dalton's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 76 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 20.5" between them, or roughly 0.27 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 Dalton
Dalton averages 48.1 inches of snowfall a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 15 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: 48.1 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 15 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 23% 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 13
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 28
50% probability date
Growing Season
168 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,192
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
769
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside NE closest to Dalton 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 (50°F here).
- Albia, IA 50°F · 0.0°F off
- Aledo, IL 50°F · 0.0°F off
- Centerburg, OH 50°F · 0.0°F off
- Circleville, UT 50°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (20.5" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Tulia, TX 20.5" · 0.0" off
- Woodland, CA 20.5" · 0.0" off
- Wood, SD 20.5" · 0.0" off
- Fort Valley, AZ 20.6" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Dalton
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Dalton's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,192 annual heating degree days against 769 for cooling. Its 44.8°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Dalton's frost-free season lasts about 168 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Dalton coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 30°F (-1°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Dalton typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Dalton snow peak
December
Dalton averages 48.1 inches of snow a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Dalton's climate
How much snow does Dalton get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Dalton get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Dalton? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Dalton's primary station: DALTON (USC00252145). 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 3112070). Match rule for Dalton: 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 Dalton 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.