Eau Claire, WI Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Pulled from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →: climate measurements used in PlainClimate's documented score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Eau Claire's primary NOAA station, EAU CLAIRE 3SW.
The climate verdict for Eau Claire
Winter sets the terms in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. A pronounced 56°F seasonal swing and heating demand above twice the cooling total frame an annual average of 46°F. At 54/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 31% of scores.
- 46°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 54/100
- comfort score, above 31% of station-mapped location scores
- 32.8"
- annual precipitation · 54" snow
- 173 days
- frost-free growing season
Eau Claire: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00472425 · Eau Claire, WI 46°F mean · 32.8" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 46°F
- RANK-COOL #1,578
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Postville
- PRCP-MID 32.8"
- SWING-WIDE 56°F
- COMF-LOW 54/100
- LOAD-HEAT 7,515 HDD
- STN-1 USC00472425
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Postville, IA (+ 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 WI station list.
- Eau Claire (this station) 46°F
- Cold Elkader, IA 46°F
- Hot Mizpah, MT 46°F
- Near Postville, IA 46°F
- Near Deaver, WY 46°F
Climate Living Index · Eau Claire
Eau Claire: 43/100 · grade D
Eau Claire publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Eau Claire, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 54/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 32.8 in · 2.3 from 35 in | 91/100 · A |
| Frost-free season | 173 days/year | 44/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 153 calendar days | 44/100 · D |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.0°F · 21.5° from 67.5°F | 23/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 54.0 inches/year | 19/100 · F |
Eau Claire · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Eau Claire is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 16.2°F and warmest-month mean 72.2°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
- 72.2°F
- Coldest month
- 16.2°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 Eau Claire sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Eau Claire's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 77%
- Among 6,861 stations, Eau Claire sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 44th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 93%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Eau Claire is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Eau Claire compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Eau Claire's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
54 31st percentile score exceeds 31% 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
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25°F (-4°C) | 8°F (-13°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 1.1" | 10.0" | 29.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 29°F (-2°C) | 12°F (-11°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 1.1" | 13.5" | 26.9 | 0.0 |
| March | 42°F (5°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 1.9" | 8.3" | 22.9 | 0.0 |
| April | 56°F (14°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 3.3" | 4.5" | 12.6 | 0.0 |
| May | 69°F (21°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 4.1" | 0.5" | 0.9 | 0.5 |
| June | 78°F (25°C) | 58°F (15°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 4.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| July | 82°F (28°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 3.7" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.8 |
| August | 80°F (27°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 71°F (21°C) | 3.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.3 |
| September | 72°F (22°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 3.5" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 0.7 |
| October | 58°F (15°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 2.5" | 0.8" | 6.8 | 0.0 |
| November | 42°F (5°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.8" | 3.3" | 20.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 30°F (-1°C) | 15°F (-10°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 1.4" | 13.1" | 28.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 83°F around July 18, short of 90°F on every date, while 153 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 7°F near January 20.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 4, then returns to freezing around November 4, covering 153 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 1, when 44% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is March 2 at 28%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 123 wet dates a year.
The widest day
May 3 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 22°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Eau Claire.
Where Eau Claire Stands Nationally
Days and nights track unusually close together; the widest normal swing, about 22°F, is narrower than most stations record.
Eau Claire earns one nationally notable standing (outer quintile) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations, middle-of-the-pack metrics stay silent here.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 10.0"
8.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 13.5"
8.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.3"
8.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.5"
11.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.5"
13.4 days with precipitation
13.1 days with precipitation
9.6 days with precipitation
10.3 days with precipitation
10.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.8"
10.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.3"
8.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 13.1"
9.9 days with precipitation
Eau Claire runs a summer-peaked wet season
37% of Eau Claire'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 June at 4.5", on a wide 56°F gap between its warmest and coldest month. 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: June, May, August, taking 38% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 1.1".
- Winter share: 11% 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 Eau Claire's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 123 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 32.8" 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 Eau Claire
Eau Claire averages 54.0 inches of snowfall a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 35 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: 54.0 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 35 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 16% 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 14
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 24
50% probability date
Growing Season
173 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
7,515
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
637
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside WI closest to Eau Claire 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 (46°F here).
- Algona, IA 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Glenbrook, NV 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Incline Village, NV 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Jensen, UT 46°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (32.8" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Amboy, MN 32.8" · 0.0" off
- Pocahontas, IA 32.8" · 0.0" off
- Sonora, CA 32.8" · 0.0" off
- Big Bay, MI 32.8" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Eau Claire
heating led · moderate · high swing
Winter and seasonal range jointly define this record. Eau Claire logs 7,515 heating degree days, more than twice its 637 cooling total, while the typical coldest-to-warmest-month gap reaches 56.0°F. The annual mean therefore compresses two materially different seasons.
Eau Claire's frost-free season lasts about 173 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Eau Claire coldest normal
January
Averaging 16°F (-9°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Eau Claire typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Eau Claire snow peak
February
Eau Claire averages 54.0 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Eau Claire's climate
How much snow does Eau Claire get? ▼
How cold does Eau Claire get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Eau Claire? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Eau Claire's primary station: EAU CLAIRE 3SW (USC00472425). 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 5522300). Match rule for Eau Claire: 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 Eau Claire 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.