Grand Island, NE Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Grand Island's primary NOAA station, GRAND ISLAND AP.
The climate verdict for Grand Island
Grand Island, Nebraska has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 52°F. Its climate comfort score of 59/100 (moderate) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 37% of station-mapped location scores.
- 52°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 59/100
- comfort score, above 37% of station-mapped location scores
- 26.6"
- annual precipitation · 28" snow
- 175 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Grand Island: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USW00014935 · Grand Island, NE 52°F mean · 26.6" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 52°F
- RANK-MID #3,293
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Hebron
- PRCP-MID 26.6"
- SWING-WIDE 51°F
- COMF-MID 59/100
- LOAD-HEAT 5,923 HDD
- STN-1 USW00014935
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Hebron, 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 NE station list.
- Grand Island (this station) 52°F
- Cold Table Rock, NE 52°F
- Hot Pawnee City, NE 52°F
- Near Hebron, NE 52°F
- Near Falls City, NE 52°F
Climate Living Index · Grand Island
Grand Island: 51/100 · grade D
Grand Island publishes all six Living Index dimensions from NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals · NOAA hourly normals.
PlainClimate-derived for Grand Island, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 59/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 26.6 in · 8.4 from 35 in | 70/100 · B |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 141 calendar days | 52/100 · D |
| Annual temperature balance | 51.8°F · 15.7° from 67.5°F | 48/100 · D |
| Summer moisture balance | 62.3°F mean dew point | 48/100 · D |
| Frost-free season | 175 days/year | 46/100 · D |
| Snowfall burden | 27.7 inches/year | 41/100 · D |
Grand Island · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Grand Island is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 25.9°F and warmest-month mean 77.0°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
- 77.0°F
- Coldest month
- 25.9°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 Grand Island sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Grand Island's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 48th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- 36th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 84%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Grand Island is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Grand Island compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Grand Island'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
Grand Island's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 86 complete annual observations from 1939 to 2025, GRAND ISLAND AP warmed at a fitted rate of 0.09°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Grand Island primary station fitted change +0.09 °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 | 36°F (2°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 0.6" | 6.8" | 30.3 | 0.0 |
| February | 40°F (5°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 30°F (-1°C) | 0.7" | 7.3" | 25.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 53°F (11°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 1.4" | 3.8" | 21.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 63°F (17°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 2.5" | 1.6" | 8.3 | 0.3 |
| May | 73°F (23°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 4.7" | 0.0" | 0.5 | 1.9 |
| June | 84°F (29°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 4.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 8.0 |
| July | 88°F (31°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 3.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 12.6 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 75°F (24°C) | 3.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 8.1 |
| September | 79°F (26°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 2.0" | 0.1" | 0.2 | 4.3 |
| October | 66°F (19°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 2.0" | 1.1" | 6.3 | 0.5 |
| November | 51°F (11°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 1.1" | 2.3" | 22.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 39°F (4°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 0.8" | 4.7" | 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 10, short of 90°F on every date, while 141 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 15°F near January 15.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 25, then returns to freezing around November 6, covering 141 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 27, when 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is November 19 at 16%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 90 wet dates a year.
The widest day
September 22 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 26°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Grand Island.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 6.8"
5.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 7.3"
5.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.8"
7.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.6"
8.9 days with precipitation
11.6 days with precipitation
10.2 days with precipitation
9.1 days with precipitation
8.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.1"
6.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.1"
6.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.3"
4.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.7"
5.3 days with precipitation
Grand Island runs a summer-peaked wet season
40% of Grand Island'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 4.7", on a wide 51.1°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 46% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 0.6".
- Winter share: 8% 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 Grand Island's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 90 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 26.6" between them, or roughly 0.30 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 Grand Island
Grand Island averages 27.7 inches of snowfall a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 18 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: 27.7 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 18 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 10% 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 15
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 23
50% probability date
Growing Season
175 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
5,923
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,153
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Humidity & Wind
Monthly averages from hourly observations
| Month | Humidity | Wind (mph) | Clear Sky % | Overcast % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 71% | 11.1 | 56% | 28% |
| February | 66% | 12.1 | 56% | 30% |
| March | 62% | 13.2 | 53% | 29% |
| April | 62% | 12.6 | 53% | 28% |
| May | 66% | 10.8 | 56% | 21% |
| June | 66% | 10.0 | 67% | 9% |
| July | 71% | 8.6 | 65% | 11% |
| August | 69% | 9.4 | 71% | 11% |
| September | 62% | 10.6 | 71% | 15% |
| October | 62% | 11.3 | 67% | 23% |
| November | 68% | 11.2 | 66% | 23% |
| December | 73% | 11.1 | 61% | 29% |
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside NE closest to Grand Island 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 (52°F here).
- Bethany, MO 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Boonton, NJ 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Colby, KS 52°F · 0.0°F off
- Hatton, WA 52°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (26.6" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Cooke City, MT 26.6" · 0.0" off
- Gregory, SD 26.7" · 0.1" off
- Fosston, MN 26.6" · 0.1" off
- Garden Valley, ID 26.6" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Grand Island
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Grand Island's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 5,923 annual heating degree days against 1,153 for cooling. Its 51.1°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Grand Island's frost-free season lasts about 175 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Grand Island 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. Grand Island typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Grand Island snow peak
February
Grand Island averages 27.7 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Grand Island's climate
How much snow does Grand Island get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Grand Island get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Grand Island? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Grand Island's primary station: GRAND ISLAND AP (USW00014935). 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 3119595). Match rule for Grand Island: 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 Grand Island 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.