Garden City Experiment Station, Kansas climate: Climate normals at a NOAA weather station
Garden City Experiment Station's normal year runs from 17°F January nights to 93°F July afternoons, with 19.6 inches of precipitation and 16 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 12.5°C, January lows of −8°C, July highs of 34°C, 497 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationGarden City Experiment Station
- Station IDUSC00142980
- Location37.99°N 100.81°W
- Elevation2,890 ft (881 m)
On October 23, the normal high in Garden City Experiment Station is 68°F and the normal low 37°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 13%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Garden City Experiment Station.
- Jan 46° 17°
- Feb 49° 20°
- Mar 59° 29°
- Apr 68° 37°
- May 78° 49°
- Jun 89° 60°
- Jul 93° 65°
- Aug 91° 63°
- Sep 84° 54°
- Oct 71° 40°
- Nov 57° 27°
- Dec 47° 18°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like at Garden City Experiment Station each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 93°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 17°F. The most precipitation falls in July (3.16 in), the least in January (0.47 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46°F | 17°F | 31.3°F | 0.47 | 3.4 | 3 | <1 | 31 | 9 h 50 min |
| February | 49°F | 20°F | 34.3°F | 0.59 | 3.3 | 3 | <1 | 27 | 10 h 50 min |
| March | 59°F | 29°F | 43.8°F | 1.13 | 3.2 | 5 | <1 | 21 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 68°F | 37°F | 52.5°F | 1.65 | 1.1 | 7 | 1 | 9 | 13 h 10 min |
| May | 78°F | 49°F | 63.3°F | 2.79 | 0.1 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 14 h 10 min |
| June | 89°F | 60°F | 74.3°F | 3.07 | 0.0 | 8 | 15 | <1 | 14 h 50 min |
| July | 93°F | 65°F | 78.9°F | 3.16 | 0.0 | 8 | 22 | <1 | 14 h 30 min |
| August | 91°F | 63°F | 76.8°F | 2.80 | 0.0 | 8 | 19 | <1 | 13 h 40 min |
| September | 84°F | 54°F | 68.7°F | 1.33 | 0.0 | 5 | 10 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 71°F | 40°F | 55.3°F | 1.34 | 0.8 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 11 h 20 min |
| November | 57°F | 27°F | 42.2°F | 0.49 | 1.0 | 3 | <1 | 22 | 10 h 10 min |
| December | 47°F | 18°F | 32.4°F | 0.73 | 2.7 | 3 | <1 | 30 | 9 h 30 min |
| Year (annual) | 69°F | 40°F | 54.5°F | 19.55 | 15.6 | 65 | 74 | 148 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 8°C | −8°C | −0.4°C | 12 mm | 9 cm |
| February | 10°C | −7°C | 1.3°C | 15 mm | 8 cm |
| March | 15°C | −2°C | 6.6°C | 29 mm | 8 cm |
| April | 20°C | 3°C | 11.4°C | 42 mm | 3 cm |
| May | 25°C | 9°C | 17.4°C | 71 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 31°C | 16°C | 23.5°C | 78 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 34°C | 18°C | 26.1°C | 80 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 33°C | 17°C | 24.9°C | 71 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 29°C | 12°C | 20.4°C | 34 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 22°C | 4°C | 12.9°C | 34 mm | 2 cm |
| November | 14°C | −3°C | 5.7°C | 12 mm | 3 cm |
| December | 8°C | −8°C | 0.2°C | 19 mm | 7 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00142980; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
Which months are mildest at Garden City Experiment Station?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in April, May, September and October. Of those, October has the fewest days with rain (5).
That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00142980.
When is the last frost at Garden City Experiment Station?
In Garden City Experiment Station, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 28 in half of years and after May 9 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 17 in half of years and before October 1 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- April 281 year in 10 after May 9; 9 in 10 after April 13
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 171 year in 10 before October 1; 9 in 10 before October 28
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 171 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 191 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 17 in half of springs and before October 25 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Garden City Experiment Station in zone 6b in ZIP code 67846, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, the station is in zone 6a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −6°F (26 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Kansas · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00142980; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get at Garden City Experiment Station?
In a normal year in Garden City Experiment Station, 74 days a year reach 90°F (16 of them 100°F or more), 148 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 65 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 74a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 16a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 148a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 20high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 65a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 6a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1956) is 112°F, on June 28, 2012; the lowest is −22°F, on January 19, 1984.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 1958, with 28.37 in; the snowiest season is 1992–93, with 59.3 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00142980; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00142980. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is it at Garden City Experiment Station?
Over a year 83% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds at Garden City Experiment Station, 5.0 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (89%) and February the cloudiest (77%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 79% | 2.7 |
| February | 77% | 3.5 |
| March | 79% | 4.8 |
| April | 79% | 5.9 |
| May | 82% | 6.8 |
| June | 88% | 7.4 |
| July | 89% | 7.2 |
| August | 87% | 6.3 |
| September | 87% | 5.3 |
| October | 82% | 4.0 |
| November | 82% | 3.0 |
| December | 79% | 2.4 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How many heating and cooling degree days does Garden City Experiment Station record?
A normal year at Garden City Experiment Station brings 5,188 heating degree days, 3% fewer than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,391 cooling degree days, 53% more than the median (908). Seven months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 3,934 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,045 | 0 |
| February | 858 | 0 |
| March | 660 | 1 |
| April | 387 | 11 |
| May | 142 | 89 |
| June | 13 | 292 |
| July | 1 | 434 |
| August | 3 | 369 |
| September | 61 | 171 |
| October | 324 | 23 |
| November | 686 | 0 |
| December | 1,009 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 5,188 | 1,391 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00142980. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Have recent years at Garden City Experiment Station been warmer than normal?
2025 averaged 55.4°F, 0.9°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 54.5°F. 4 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 55.6°F | +1.1°F | 16.34 | 6.8 |
| 2022 | 54.2°F | −0.3°F | 9.46 | 22.9 |
| 2023 | 55.0°F | +0.5°F | 27.56 | – |
| 2024 | 56.7°F | +2.2°F | 23.49 | – |
| 2025 | 55.4°F | +0.9°F | 22.03 | – |
Over 59 complete years from 1958 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.9°F per century (+0.16°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00142980; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Garden City Experiment Station's climate compare?
Garden City Experiment Station is warmer than 54 of the 137 places with their own NOAA record in Kansas, and wetter than 13. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 54.5°F is warmer than 59%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Garden City Experiment Station is BSk: cold semi-arid steppe. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Garden City Experiment Station share this climate record?
Holcomb has no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of its own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.
- Holcomb, KS2,242 people · 10 mi W
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Garden City Experiment Station's climate
What is the coldest month at Garden City Experiment Station?
January, with a normal high of 46°F and a normal low of 17°F. The warmest is July (93°F by day, 65°F at night).
Does it snow at Garden City Experiment Station?
Yes: 16 inches in a normal year, falling on 10 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in January (3.4 inches).
What is the rainiest month at Garden City Experiment Station?
July, with 3.16 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is January with 0.47 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Garden City Experiment Station in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Garden City Experiment Station in zone 6b in ZIP code 67846, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at the station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −6°F (26 years, 1991-2020): zone 6a.
How late can frost come at Garden City Experiment Station?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 28; in one year in ten it comes after May 9. Waiting until May 9 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Kansas climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Garden City, KS7 miles from this station, 54.4°F a year
- Lakin, KS24 miles from this station, 55.7°F a year
- Cimarron, KS29 miles from this station, 55.2°F a year
- Scott City, KS34 miles from this station, 53.1°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made