Fort Meade, 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 Fort Meade's primary NOAA station, FT MEADE.
The climate verdict for Fort Meade
Fort Meade, South Dakota has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 48°F. Its climate comfort score of 59/100 (moderate) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 37% of station-mapped location scores.
- 48°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 59/100
- comfort score, above 37% of station-mapped location scores
- 21.3"
- annual precipitation · 48" snow
- 148 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Fort Meade: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00393069 · Fort Meade, SD 48°F mean · 21.3" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 48°F
- RANK-COOL #2,196
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ N Loup
- PRCP-DRY 21.3"
- SWING-WIDE 47°F
- COMF-MID 59/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,780 HDD
- STN-1 USC00393069
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: N Loup, NE (+ 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.
- Fort Meade (this station) 48°F
- Hot Saginaw, MI 48°F
- Near N Loup, NE 48°F
- Near Stapleton, NE 48°F
- Near Compton, IL 48°F
Climate Living Index · Fort Meade
Fort Meade: 34/100 · grade F
Fort Meade publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Fort Meade, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 59/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 21.3 in · 13.7 from 35 in | 52/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 167 calendar days | 34/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 48.2°F · 19.3° from 67.5°F | 32/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 148 days/year | 24/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 47.6 inches/year | 22/100 · F |
Fort Meade · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Fort Meade is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 26.4°F and warmest-month mean 73.2°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
- 73.2°F
- Coldest month
- 26.4°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 Fort Meade sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Fort Meade's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 32nd percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 70%
- Fort Meade's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 67th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Fort Meade compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Fort Meade'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
Fort Meade's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 69 complete annual observations from 1950 to 2025, FT MEADE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.13°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Fort Meade primary station fitted change +0.13 °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 | 38°F (3°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 0.5" | 5.3" | 28.3 | 0.0 |
| February | 39°F (4°C) | 17°F (-9°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 0.7" | 8.3" | 25.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 49°F (9°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 1.3" | 8.4" | 23.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 58°F (14°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 2.5" | 7.9" | 13.9 | 0.0 |
| May | 67°F (19°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 4.4" | 1.4" | 2.9 | 0.3 |
| June | 78°F (26°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 3.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.8 |
| July | 86°F (30°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 2.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.1 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 1.7" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 10.1 |
| September | 77°F (25°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 0.7 | 3.7 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.9" | 2.8" | 9.7 | 0.2 |
| November | 48°F (9°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 0.8" | 5.3" | 23.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 39°F (4°C) | 17°F (-8°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 0.5" | 8.2" | 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 23, short of 90°F on every date, while 167 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 15°F near January 26.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 10, then returns to freezing around October 27, covering 167 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 May 30, when 42% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is December 5 at 17%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 95 wet dates a year.
The widest day
September 5 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 29°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Fort Meade.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 5.3"
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.3"
6.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.4"
7.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 7.9"
9.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.4"
12.2 days with precipitation
11.8 days with precipitation
9.3 days with precipitation
7.1 days with precipitation
6.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.8"
7.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.3"
5.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.2"
5.3 days with precipitation
Fort Meade spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 34% of the annual total and December through February 8%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Fort Meade has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 46.8°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: May averages 4.4" and January 0.5". The three wettest months together take 48% 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 Fort Meade's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 94 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 21.3" between them, or roughly 0.23 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 Fort Meade
Fort Meade averages 47.6 inches of snowfall a year, with March the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 16 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: 47.6 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 16 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 22% 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 3
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 8
50% probability date
Growing Season
148 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,780
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
691
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside SD closest to Fort Meade 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 (48°F here).
- Belle Plaine, IA 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Broadus, MT 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Compton, IL 48°F · 0.0°F off
- Copake, NY 48°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (21.3" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Halfway, OR 21.3" · 0.0" off
- Curtis, NE 21.3" · 0.0" off
- Laredo, TX 21.4" · 0.1" off
- Roscoe, TX 21.2" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Fort Meade
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Fort Meade's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,780 annual heating degree days against 691 for cooling. Its 46.8°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 148 days are frost-free in a normal year. That short interval is consistent with the cold-season signal, but the measure does not predict the exact first or last freeze in any one year.
-
1. Fort Meade coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 26°F (-3°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Fort Meade typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Fort Meade snow peak
March
Fort Meade averages 47.6 inches of snow a year, with March the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Fort Meade's climate
How much snow does Fort Meade get? ▼
How cold does Fort Meade get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Fort Meade? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Fort Meade's primary station: FT MEADE (USC00393069). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The conservative exact name-and-state crosswalk finds no Census place match, so PlainClimate treats this as a station-mapped location and does not claim it is a municipality. No exact Gazetteer row for Fort Meade; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Fort Meade 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.