Kalkaska, MI 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 Kalkaska's primary NOAA station, KALKASKA - 2 stations mapped to the area.
The climate verdict for Kalkaska
Kalkaska, Michigan has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 43°F. At 44/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 10% of scores.
- 43°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 44/100
- comfort score, above 10% of station-mapped location scores
- 33.7"
- annual precipitation · 132" snow
- 130 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Kalkaska: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00204257 · Kalkaska, MI 43°F mean · 33.7" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-MULTI · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 43°F
- RANK-COOL #823
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Fife Lake
- PRCP-MID 33.7"
- SWING-WIDE 49°F
- COMF-LOW 44/100
- LOAD-HEAT 8,288 HDD
- STN-MULTI USC00204257
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Fife Lake, MI (+ 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 MI station list.
- Kalkaska (this station) 43°F
- Cold Stephenson, MI 43°F
- Hot Lincoln Sanitar…, ME 43°F
- Near Fife Lake, MI 43°F
- Near Topsfield, ME 43°F
Climate Living Index · Kalkaska
Kalkaska: 30/100 · grade F
Kalkaska publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Kalkaska, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 44/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 33.7 in · 1.3 from 35 in | 93/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 175 calendar days | 29/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 43.0°F · 24.5° from 67.5°F | 13/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 130 days/year | 12/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 132.1 inches/year | 0/100 · F |
Kalkaska · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Kalkaska is a continental Köppen climate: Dfb
Coldest-month mean 18.0°F and warmest-month mean 66.9°F place this station in continental, no dry season, warm summer climates (Dfb). Class Dfb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, no dry season, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dfb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 66.9°F
- Coldest month
- 18.0°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 Kalkaska sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Kalkaska's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 88%
- Among 6,861 stations, Kalkaska sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 46th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 77%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Kalkaska is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Kalkaska compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Kalkaska's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
44 10th percentile score exceeds 10% 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
Kalkaska's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 35 complete annual observations from 1991 to 2025, KALKASKA warmed at a fitted rate of 0.40°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Kalkaska primary station fitted change +0.40 °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 | 26°F (-4°C) | 11°F (-12°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 2.0" | 38.3" | 30.3 | 0.0 |
| February | 28°F (-2°C) | 10°F (-12°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 1.5" | 24.8" | 27.4 | 0.0 |
| March | 38°F (3°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 1.7" | 13.7" | 28.2 | 0.0 |
| April | 51°F (11°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 2.9" | 6.8" | 20.5 | 0.0 |
| May | 65°F (18°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 3.3" | 0.7" | 6.4 | 0.0 |
| June | 75°F (24°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 3.3" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 1.0 |
| July | 79°F (26°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 3.1" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.8 |
| August | 77°F (25°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 65°F (19°C) | 3.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| September | 70°F (21°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 3.7" | 0.0" | 1.7 | 0.2 |
| October | 56°F (13°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 4.2" | 1.0" | 11.5 | 0.0 |
| November | 42°F (6°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 35°F (1°C) | 2.9" | 17.1" | 23.0 | 0.0 |
| December | 31°F (0°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 2.2" | 29.7" | 29.6 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 79°F around July 14, short of 90°F on every date, while 175 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 9°F near January 31.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 22, then returns to freezing around October 31, covering 175 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 January 12, when 54% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 29 at 31%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 149 wet dates a year.
The widest day
May 20 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 24°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Kalkaska.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 38.3"
17.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 24.8"
12.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 13.7"
10.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.8"
11.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.7"
11.7 days with precipitation
9.8 days with precipitation
9.9 days with precipitation
9.8 days with precipitation
11.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.0"
14.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 17.1"
14.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 29.7"
15.7 days with precipitation
Kalkaska spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 28% of the annual total and December through February 17%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Kalkaska has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 48.9°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: October averages 4.2" and February 1.5". The three wettest months together take 33% of the year, against the 25% a perfectly flat distribution would give them.
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. "Spread across the year" means neither the June-August nor the December-February share reaches 35%; it describes an average year, not the variability of any single one.
How Kalkaska's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 148 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 33.7" between them, or roughly 0.23 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 Kalkaska
Kalkaska averages 132.1 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 54 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: 132.1 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 54 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 39% 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 1
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 24
50% probability date
Growing Season
130 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,288
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
318
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside MI closest to Kalkaska 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 (43°F here).
- Arco, ID 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Browns Valley, MN 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Estes Park, CO 43°F · 0.0°F off
- Laketown, UT 43°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (33.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Bruno, MN 33.7" · 0.0" off
- Denison, IA 33.6" · 0.0" off
- Carroll, IA 33.7" · 0.0" off
- Marysville, KS 33.6" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Kalkaska
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Kalkaska's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,288 annual heating degree days against 318 for cooling. Its 48.9°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 130 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. Kalkaska coldest normal
January
Averaging 18°F (-8°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Kalkaska typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Kalkaska snow peak
January
Kalkaska averages 132.1 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Kalkaska's climate
How much snow does Kalkaska get? ▼
How cold does Kalkaska get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Kalkaska? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Kalkaska's primary station: KALKASKA (USC00204257). 2 NOAA stations are mapped to the Kalkaska area; the primary station's record is used for consistency. 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 2642260). Match rule for Kalkaska: 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 Kalkaska 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.