Hettinger, North Dakota climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Hettinger's normal year runs from 5°F January nights to 84°F July afternoons, with 14.3 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 5.8°C, January lows of −15°C, July highs of 29°C, 362 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationHettinger Municipal Airport
- Station IDUSW00094038
- Location46.01°N 102.65°W
- Elevation2,705 ft (825 m)
- Population1,058
On October 14, the normal high in Hettinger is 58°F and the normal low 30°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 22%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Hettinger.
- Jan 27° 5°
- Feb 31° 8°
- Mar 42° 18°
- Apr 55° 28°
- May 66° 38°
- Jun 76° 49°
- Jul 84° 54°
- Aug 84° 52°
- Sep 74° 42°
- Oct 57° 29°
- Nov 42° 17°
- Dec 31° 8°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Hettinger each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 84°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 5°F. The most precipitation falls in June (2.76 in), the least in December (0.14 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27°F | 5°F | 16.4°F | 0.19 | 4 | <1 | 31 | 9 h |
| February | 31°F | 8°F | 19.5°F | 0.29 | 4 | <1 | 28 | 10 h 20 min |
| March | 42°F | 18°F | 30.1°F | 0.53 | 6 | <1 | 29 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 55°F | 28°F | 41.1°F | 1.04 | 8 | <1 | 21 | 13 h 30 min |
| May | 66°F | 38°F | 52.1°F | 2.32 | 11 | <1 | 8 | 14 h 50 min |
| June | 76°F | 49°F | 62.1°F | 2.76 | 12 | 2 | 1 | 15 h 40 min |
| July | 84°F | 54°F | 69.2°F | 2.39 | 9 | 9 | <1 | 15 h 30 min |
| August | 84°F | 52°F | 67.7°F | 1.55 | 9 | 9 | <1 | 14 h 10 min |
| September | 74°F | 42°F | 57.9°F | 1.23 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 12 h 40 min |
| October | 57°F | 29°F | 43.2°F | 1.28 | 7 | <1 | 21 | 11 h |
| November | 42°F | 17°F | 29.4°F | 0.54 | 3 | <1 | 29 | 9 h 30 min |
| December | 31°F | 8°F | 19.4°F | 0.14 | 4 | <1 | 31 | 8 h 40 min |
| Year (annual) | 56°F | 29°F | 42.4°F | 14.26 | 83 | 24 | 201 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | −3°C | −15°C | −8.7°C | 5 mm |
| February | −1°C | −13°C | −6.9°C | 7 mm |
| March | 6°C | −8°C | −1.1°C | 13 mm |
| April | 13°C | −2°C | 5.1°C | 26 mm |
| May | 19°C | 4°C | 11.2°C | 59 mm |
| June | 24°C | 9°C | 16.7°C | 70 mm |
| July | 29°C | 12°C | 20.7°C | 61 mm |
| August | 29°C | 11°C | 19.8°C | 39 mm |
| September | 23°C | 6°C | 14.4°C | 31 mm |
| October | 14°C | −1°C | 6.2°C | 33 mm |
| November | 5°C | −8°C | −1.4°C | 14 mm |
| December | −1°C | −13°C | −7.0°C | 4 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station. The nearest record that keeps one, Lemmon (24 miles away), gets 42 inches of snow in a normal year; elevation and distance can change that.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00094038; 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.
When is the best weather to visit Hettinger?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June, July, August and September. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (7).
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 USW00094038.
When is the last frost in Hettinger?
In Hettinger, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 24 in half of years and after June 10 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before September 18 in half of years and before September 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
- May 241 year in 10 after June 10; 9 in 10 after May 11
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- September 181 year in 10 before September 1; 9 in 10 before October 1
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 115 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 135 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after May 13 in half of springs and before September 27 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Hettinger in zone 4b in ZIP code 58639, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Hettinger's NOAA station is in zone 4a: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −27°F (23 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 North Dakota · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00094038; 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 in Hettinger?
In a normal year in Hettinger, 24 days a year reach 90°F (2 of them 100°F or more), 201 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 83 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 24a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 2a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 201a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 67high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 83a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1996) is 109°F, on July 15, 2002; the lowest is −45°F, on January 1, 2018.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2013, with 25.08 in.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00094038; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USW00094038. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Hettinger?
Over a year 78% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Hettinger, 4.1 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (87%) and December the cloudiest (70%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 77% | 1.8 |
| February | 78% | 2.8 |
| March | 73% | 3.8 |
| April | 72% | 4.9 |
| May | 73% | 5.9 |
| June | 79% | 6.7 |
| July | 87% | 7.0 |
| August | 84% | 5.8 |
| September | 80% | 4.4 |
| October | 73% | 2.8 |
| November | 73% | 1.8 |
| December | 70% | 1.3 |
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 much heating and cooling does Hettinger need?
A normal year in Hettinger brings 8,604 heating degree days, 60% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 386 cooling degree days, 57% fewer than the median (908). Eight months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 1,997 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,507 | 0 |
| February | 1,273 | 0 |
| March | 1,081 | 0 |
| April | 716 | 0 |
| May | 406 | 6 |
| June | 135 | 48 |
| July | 30 | 160 |
| August | 54 | 139 |
| September | 245 | 32 |
| October | 679 | 2 |
| November | 1,067 | 0 |
| December | 1,413 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 8,604 | 386 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00094038. 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.
Has Hettinger been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 42.8°F, 0.4°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 42.4°F. 4 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 45.3°F | +2.9°F | – |
| 2022 | 42.3°F | −0.1°F | – |
| 2023 | 44.3°F | +1.9°F | – |
| 2024 | 45.7°F | +3.3°F | – |
| 2025 | 42.8°F | +0.4°F | – |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00094038. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Hettinger's climate compare?
Hettinger is warmer than 70 of the other 91 places with their own NOAA record in North Dakota, and wetter than 0. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 42.4°F is warmer than 10%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Hettinger 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 Hettinger share this climate record?
Bucyrus 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.
- Bucyrus, ND15 people · 7 mi NW
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
What do Hettinger's other NOAA stations record?
One more NOAA station keeps 1991-2020 normals in or near Hettinger. This page uses Hettinger Municipal Airport; the other differs by site and elevation:
| Station | From this station | Elevation | Year | Jan low | Jul high | Precip. | Snow | Last frost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hettinger Experiment Station USC00324180 | 1 mi SE | 2,703 ft | 42.8°F | 5°F | 85°F | 17.3 | – | May 21 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for each station. Last frost: the median last spring date of 32°F.
Questions about Hettinger's climate
What is the coldest month in Hettinger?
January, with a normal high of 27°F and a normal low of 5°F. The warmest is July (84°F by day, 54°F at night).
Does it snow in Hettinger?
Yes. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Hettinger's NOAA station; the nearest record that keeps one, Lemmon (24 miles away), records 42 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Hettinger?
June, with 2.76 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is December with 0.14 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Hettinger in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Hettinger in zone 4b in ZIP code 58639, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Hettinger's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −27°F (23 years, 1991-2020): zone 4a.
How late can frost come in Hettinger?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after May 24; in one year in ten it comes after June 10. Waiting until June 10 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- North Dakota climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Lodgepole (5 mi SW), SD20 miles from this station, 41.1°F a year
- Lemmon, SD24 miles from this station, 45.7°F a year
- Ralph (1 mi N), SD25 miles from this station, 44.2°F a year
- Shadehill Reservoir, SD29 miles from this station, 44.1°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made