Garden Valley, ID Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Average temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, with a derived climate comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Garden Valley's primary NOAA station, GARDEN VALLEY.
The climate verdict for Garden Valley
Garden Valley, Idaho has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 47°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.
- 47°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 54/100
- comfort score, above 31% of station-mapped location scores
- 26.6"
- annual precipitation · 69" snow
- 101 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Garden Valley: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00103448 · Garden Valley, ID 47°F mean · 26.6" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 47°F
- RANK-COOL #1,784
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Holter Dam
- PRCP-MID 26.6"
- SWING-MID 42°F
- COMF-LOW 54/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,913 HDD
- STN-1 USC00103448
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Holter Dam, MT (+ 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 ID station list.
- Garden Valley (this station) 47°F
- Cold Kellogg, ID 47°F
- Hot Troy, MT 47°F
- Near Holter Dam, MT 47°F
- Near Alkali Lake, OR 47°F
Climate Living Index · Garden Valley
Garden Valley: 24/100 · grade F
Garden Valley publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Garden Valley, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 54/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 26.6 in · 8.4 from 35 in | 70/100 · B |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.8°F · 20.7° from 67.5°F | 26/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 69.4 inches/year | 10/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 213 calendar days | 8/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 101 days/year | 0/100 · F |
Garden Valley · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Garden Valley is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 26.5°F and warmest-month mean 68.4°F place this station in continental, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Dsb). Class Dsb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dsb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 68.4°F
- Coldest month
- 26.5°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 Garden Valley sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Garden Valley's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 74%
- Among 6,861 stations, Garden Valley sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 36th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 44th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Garden Valley compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Garden Valley'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
Garden Valley's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 44 complete annual observations from 1917 to 2018, GARDEN VALLEY warmed at a fitted rate of 0.03°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Garden Valley primary station fitted change +0.03 °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 | 34°F (1°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 4.2" | 22.8" | 30.4 | 0.0 |
| February | 41°F (5°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 2.5" | 10.2" | 26.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 52°F (11°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 2.9" | 3.5" | 23.8 | 0.0 |
| April | 60°F (16°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 2.1" | 0.4" | 16.0 | 0.0 |
| May | 69°F (21°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 6.4 | 0.6 |
| June | 78°F (26°C) | 44°F (6°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 1.2 | 4.3 |
| July | 89°F (32°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 18.1 |
| August | 89°F (32°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 0.5" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 18.2 |
| September | 79°F (26°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 5.8 | 4.6 |
| October | 64°F (18°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 1.7" | 0.3" | 17.8 | 0.2 |
| November | 44°F (7°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 3.2" | 8.0" | 23.2 | 0.0 |
| December | 33°F (1°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 5.0" | 24.2" | 29.1 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Garden Valley works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 92°F by July 27 and hold at or above 90°F on 26 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 187 dates, bottoming at 18°F around January 1.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from July 18 through August 12, covering 26 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs May 18 to October 5.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 16, then returns to freezing around October 13, covering 187 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 December 13, when 41% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 5 at 8%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 99 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 13 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 44°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Garden Valley.
Where Garden Valley Stands Nationally
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 44°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Freezing is routine here by normals standards — the normal low reaches 32°F or colder on about 187 nights a year, more than most ranked stations.
Garden Valley earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 22.8"
11.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 10.2"
10.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.5"
10.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.4"
9.8 days with precipitation
9.2 days with precipitation
6.7 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
2.4 days with precipitation
4.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
6.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.0"
10.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 24.2"
12.8 days with precipitation
Garden Valley's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 44% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 8%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 41.9°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- December, 5.0"
- Driest month
- July, 0.4"
- Wettest three months
- December, January, November (47% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
How Garden Valley's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 98 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 26.6" 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 Garden Valley
Garden Valley averages 69.4 inches of snowfall a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 24 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: 69.4 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 24 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 26% 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
September 10
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
June 1
50% probability date
Growing Season
101 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,913
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
292
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside ID closest to Garden Valley 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 (47°F here).
- Bigfork, MT 47°F · 0.0°F off
- Chamberlain, SD 47°F · 0.0°F off
- Cody, WY 47°F · 0.0°F off
- Dakota City, IA 47°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (26.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Ericson, NE 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Fosston, MN 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Franklin, NE 26.5" · 0.0" off
- Chemult, OR 26.5" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Garden Valley
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Garden Valley's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,913 annual heating degree days against 292 for cooling. Its 41.9°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 101 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. Garden Valley coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 27°F (-3°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Garden Valley typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Garden Valley snow peak
December
Garden Valley averages 69.4 inches of snow a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Garden Valley's climate
How much snow does Garden Valley get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Garden Valley get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Garden Valley? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Garden Valley's primary station: GARDEN VALLEY (USC00103448). 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 a census-designated place (GEOID 1629710), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Garden Valley: 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 Garden Valley 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.