Faith, SD 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 Faith's primary NOAA station, FAITH.
The climate verdict for Faith
Dryness leads the climate profile for Faith, South Dakota, with 19.1 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 46°F. At 44/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 10% of scores.
- 46°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 44/100
- comfort score, above 10% of station-mapped location scores
- 19.1"
- annual precipitation · 56" snow
- 152 days
- frost-free growing season
Faith: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00392852 · Faith, SD 46°F mean · 19.1" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 46°F
- RANK-COOL #1,715
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Centerville
- PRCP-DRY 19.1"
- SWING-WIDE 54°F
- COMF-LOW 44/100
- LOAD-HEAT 7,467 HDD
- STN-1 USC00392852
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Centerville, SD (+ 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 SD station list.
- Hot St Paul Downtown, MN 47°F
- Faith (this station) 46°F
- Cold Minnesota City…, MN 46°F
- Near Centerville, SD 46°F
- Near Tripoli, IA 46°F
Climate Living Index · Faith
Faith: 30/100 · grade F
Faith publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Faith, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 44/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 19.1 in · 15.9 from 35 in | 44/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 170 calendar days | 32/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 152 days/year | 27/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.4°F · 21.1° from 67.5°F | 25/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 55.5 inches/year | 18/100 · F |
Faith · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Faith is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 19.9°F and warmest-month mean 73.5°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
- 73.5°F
- Coldest month
- 19.9°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 Faith sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Faith's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 75%
- Among 6,861 stations, Faith sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 74%
- Faith's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 90%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Faith is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Faith compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Faith's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
44 10th percentile score exceeds 10% 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 | 29°F (-2°C) | 11°F (-12°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 0.5" | 10.4" | 29.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 32°F (0°C) | 13°F (-10°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 0.7" | 9.7" | 26.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 45°F (7°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.0" | 10.1" | 24.9 | 0.0 |
| April | 58°F (14°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 1.9" | 7.2" | 13.4 | 0.1 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 3.2" | 0.3" | 2.8 | 0.7 |
| June | 79°F (26°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 3.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.3 |
| July | 87°F (30°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 2.9" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 12.3 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 1.6" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.5 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 0.6 | 3.3 |
| October | 59°F (15°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 1.6" | 2.8" | 9.5 | 0.4 |
| November | 43°F (6°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 0.6" | 6.1" | 24.2 | 0.0 |
| December | 32°F (0°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 0.6" | 8.9" | 29.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 88°F around July 24, short of 90°F on every date, while 170 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 10°F near January 19.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 12, then returns to freezing around October 26, covering 170 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 5, when 34% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is December 8 at 12%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 73 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 30 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 27°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Faith.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 10.4"
4.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.7"
4.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 10.1"
5.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 7.2"
7.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
9.4 days with precipitation
9.9 days with precipitation
7.8 days with precipitation
5.8 days with precipitation
4.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.8"
5.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.1"
3.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.9"
3.7 days with precipitation
Faith runs a summer-peaked wet season
40% of Faith'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 3.2", on a wide 53.6°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: May, June, July, taking 49% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 0.5".
- Winter share: 9% 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 Faith's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 73 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 19.0" between them, or roughly 0.26 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 Faith
Faith averages 55.5 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 22 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: 55.5 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 22 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 29% 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 5
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 6
50% probability date
Growing Season
152 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
7,467
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
716
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside SD closest to Faith 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).
- Bad Axe, MI 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Bickleton, WA 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Cle Elum, WA 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Essex Junction, VT 46°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (19.1" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Bismarck, ND 19.1" · 0.0" off
- Denver City, TX 19.1" · 0.0" off
- Redwood City, CA 19.0" · 0.0" off
- Goodland, KS 19.1" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Faith
heating led · dry · mid swing
Faith's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 7,467 annual heating degree days against 716 for cooling. Its 53.6°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Faith's frost-free season lasts about 152 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Faith coldest normal
January
Averaging 20°F (-7°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Faith typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Faith snow peak
January
Faith averages 55.5 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Faith's climate
How much snow does Faith get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Faith get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Faith? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Faith's primary station: FAITH (USC00392852). 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 4620980). Match rule for Faith: 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 Faith 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.