Hill City, ID Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Annual temperature and rainfall from NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 normals →; comfort score computed by PlainClimate
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Hill City's primary NOAA station, HILL CITY 1 W.
The climate verdict for Hill City
Dryness leads the climate profile for Hill City, Idaho, with 14.0 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 42°F. At 40/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 6% of scores.
- 42°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 40/100
- comfort score, above 6% of station-mapped location scores
- 14.0"
- annual precipitation
- 82 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Hill City: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00104268 · Hill City, ID 42°F mean · 14.0" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 42°F
- RANK-COOL #617
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Fairfield Range…
- PRCP-DRY 14.0"
- SWING-WIDE 47°F
- COMF-LOW 40/100
- LOAD-HEAT 8,513 HDD
- STN-1 USC00104268
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Fairfield Ranger Station, ID (+ 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.
- Hill City (this station) 42°F
- Cold Chelsea, VT 42°F
- Hot Escanaba, MI 42°F
- Near Fairfield Range…, ID 42°F
- Near Boonville, NY 42°F
Climate Living Index · Hill City
Hill City: 11/100 · grade F
Hill City publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Hill City, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 40/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 14.0 in · 21.0 from 35 in | 25/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 42.1°F · 25.4° from 67.5°F | 10/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 212 calendar days | 8/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 82 days/year | 0/100 · F |
Hill City · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Hill City is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 19.1°F and warmest-month mean 66.0°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
- 66.0°F
- Coldest month
- 19.1°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 Hill City sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Hill City's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 91%
- Among 6,861 stations, Hill City sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 85%
- Hill City's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 68th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Hill City compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Hill City's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
40 6th percentile score exceeds 6% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Above this entry.
- 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
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29°F (-2°C) | 9°F (-13°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 2.1" | 30.7 | 0.0 |
| February | 32°F (0°C) | 12°F (-11°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 1.2" | 27.5 | 0.0 |
| March | 42°F (6°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 1.2" | 29.2 | 0.0 |
| April | 54°F (12°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 1.2" | 20.6 | 0.0 |
| May | 65°F (18°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 1.3" | 10.3 | 0.1 |
| June | 75°F (24°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.8" | 4.2 | 0.9 |
| July | 85°F (30°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 0.5" | 0.3 | 7.8 |
| August | 85°F (30°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.2" | 1.6 | 7.3 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 0.5" | 8.2 | 0.2 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 1.1" | 21.3 | 0.0 |
| November | 43°F (6°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 1.3" | 27.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 30°F (-1°C) | 11°F (-12°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 2.7" | 30.3 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 88°F around July 30, short of 90°F on every date, while 212 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 9°F near January 1.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 30, then returns to freezing around October 2, covering 212 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 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 12 at 10%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 86 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 15 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 41°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Hill City.
Where Hill City Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 212 nights a year, placing this among the most frost-prone tenth of ranked stations.
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 41°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Hill City earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
10.9 days with precipitation
8.5 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
8.3 days with precipitation
8.2 days with precipitation
6.2 days with precipitation
3.3 days with precipitation
2.7 days with precipitation
3.8 days with precipitation
5.8 days with precipitation
8.3 days with precipitation
11.8 days with precipitation
Hill City's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 43% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 11%. 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 wide 46.9°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
- Wettest month
- December, 2.7"
- Driest month
- August, 0.2"
- Wettest three months
- December, January, May (43% 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.
Hill City is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 85 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 23% of the calendar, and they carry 14.0" between them. At roughly 0.16 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is December at about 12 wet days; the driest is August at about 3.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
September 6
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
June 16
50% probability date
Growing Season
82 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,513
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
182
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside ID closest to Hill City 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 (42°F here).
- Bethlehem, NH 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Breckenridge, MN 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Gackle, ND 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Georgetown, MN 42°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (14.0" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- The Dalles, OR 14.0" · 0.0" off
- Andrews, TX 14.0" · 0.0" off
- Davenport, WA 14.0" · 0.0" off
- Douglas, AZ 14.0" · 0.0" off
Scarce-water calendar
Where Hill City's limited precipitation lands
heating led · dry · mid swing
Hill City's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,513 annual heating degree days against 182 for cooling. Its 46.9°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 82 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.
July and January mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in Hill City's middle-range seasonal profile. The measured spread is 46.9°F. The annual average is 42°F. Neither the annual mean nor one extreme month represents the full calendar on its own.
Hill City's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 14.0 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
Hill City wettest normal
December
December concentrates the scarce annual total (14.0 inches).
Hill City driest normal
August
August is typically driest; arid stations are defined by when water is absent, not by a four-season grid.
Questions about Hill City's climate
How dry is Hill City? ▼
How cold does Hill City get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Hill City? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Hill City's primary station: HILL CITY 1 W (USC00104268). 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 Hill City; 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 Hill City 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.