Kearney, Nebraska climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Kearney's normal year runs from 14°F January nights to 87°F July afternoons, with 25.6 inches of precipitation and 22 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 9.9°C, January lows of −10°C, July highs of 30°C, 649 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationKearney (4 mi NE)
- Station IDUSC00254335
- Location40.73°N 99.01°W
- Elevation2,130 ft (649 m)
- From the center4 miles
- Population34,741
On October 22, the normal high in Kearney is 62°F and the normal low 35°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 20%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Kearney.
- Jan 36° 14°
- Feb 40° 17°
- Mar 51° 25°
- Apr 62° 36°
- May 72° 47°
- Jun 82° 59°
- Jul 87° 63°
- Aug 84° 61°
- Sep 78° 51°
- Oct 65° 38°
- Nov 51° 25°
- Dec 38° 17°
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 Kearney each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 87°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 14°F. The most precipitation falls in May (4.40 in), the least in January (0.51 in).
Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36°F | 14°F | 24.8°F | 0.51 | 3.7 | 4 | <1 | 31 | 9 h 30 min |
| February | 40°F | 17°F | 28.1°F | 0.59 | 5.6 | 5 | <1 | 27 | 10 h 40 min |
| March | 51°F | 25°F | 38.3°F | 1.46 | 3.5 | 6 | <1 | 24 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 62°F | 36°F | 48.6°F | 2.68 | 1.9 | 9 | <1 | 11 | 13 h 20 min |
| May | 72°F | 47°F | 59.5°F | 4.40 | 0.1 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 14 h 20 min |
| June | 82°F | 59°F | 70.4°F | 3.90 | 0.0 | 10 | 7 | <1 | 15 h |
| July | 87°F | 63°F | 74.8°F | 3.36 | 0.0 | 9 | 11 | <1 | 14 h 50 min |
| August | 84°F | 61°F | 72.6°F | 3.01 | 0.0 | 8 | 8 | <1 | 13 h 50 min |
| September | 78°F | 51°F | 64.5°F | 1.84 | 0.0 | 7 | 4 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 65°F | 38°F | 51.3°F | 2.13 | 0.8 | 7 | <1 | 8 | 11 h 10 min |
| November | 51°F | 25°F | 37.9°F | 1.00 | 2.8 | 4 | <1 | 24 | 10 h |
| December | 38°F | 17°F | 27.4°F | 0.68 | 3.4 | 4 | <1 | 31 | 9 h 20 min |
| Year (annual) | 62°F | 38°F | 49.9°F | 25.56 | 21.8 | 82 | 31 | 157 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 2°C | −10°C | −4.0°C | 13 mm | 9 cm |
| February | 4°C | −9°C | −2.2°C | 15 mm | 14 cm |
| March | 11°C | −4°C | 3.5°C | 37 mm | 9 cm |
| April | 16°C | 2°C | 9.2°C | 68 mm | 5 cm |
| May | 22°C | 9°C | 15.3°C | 112 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 28°C | 15°C | 21.3°C | 99 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 30°C | 17°C | 23.8°C | 85 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 29°C | 16°C | 22.6°C | 76 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 26°C | 11°C | 18.1°C | 47 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 18°C | 3°C | 10.7°C | 54 mm | 2 cm |
| November | 10°C | −4°C | 3.3°C | 25 mm | 7 cm |
| December | 3°C | −9°C | −2.6°C | 17 mm | 9 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00254335; 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 Kearney?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June, 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 USC00254335.
When is the last frost in Kearney?
In Kearney, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 30 in half of years and after May 12 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 10 in half of years and before September 25 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
- April 301 year in 10 after May 12; 9 in 10 after April 16
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 101 year in 10 before September 25; 9 in 10 before October 22
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 162 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 181 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 19 in half of springs and before October 19 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Kearney in zone 5b in ZIP code 68849. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Kearney's NOAA station is in zone 5b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −12°F (30 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in Nebraska · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00254335; 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 Kearney?
In a normal year in Kearney, 31 days a year reach 90°F (2 of them 100°F or more), 157 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 82 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 31a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 2a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 157a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 39high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 82a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 9a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1901) is 114°F, on July 24, 1936; the lowest is −30°F, on December 23, 1989.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2019, with 39.04 in; the snowiest season is 1983–84, with 80.1 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00254335; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USC00254335. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Kearney?
Over a year 80% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Kearney, 4.5 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (87%) and February the cloudiest (73%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 76% | 2.3 |
| February | 73% | 3.1 |
| March | 75% | 4.3 |
| April | 75% | 5.4 |
| May | 76% | 6.1 |
| June | 84% | 7.0 |
| July | 87% | 7.0 |
| August | 85% | 6.0 |
| September | 83% | 4.9 |
| October | 79% | 3.5 |
| November | 79% | 2.6 |
| December | 74% | 2.0 |
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 Kearney need?
A normal year in Kearney brings 6,387 heating degree days, 19% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 904 cooling degree days, 0% fewer than the median (908). Seven months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 3,132 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,245 | 0 |
| February | 1,033 | 0 |
| March | 828 | 0 |
| April | 497 | 5 |
| May | 219 | 47 |
| June | 31 | 192 |
| July | 4 | 308 |
| August | 10 | 247 |
| September | 112 | 97 |
| October | 432 | 8 |
| November | 813 | 0 |
| December | 1,165 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 6,387 | 904 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00254335. 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 Kearney been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 52.1°F, 2.2°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 49.9°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 51.9°F | +2.0°F | 26.20 | 27.1 |
| 2022 | 50.8°F | +0.9°F | 17.62 | 7.0 |
| 2023 | 51.6°F | +1.7°F | 26.95 | 36.4 |
| 2024 | 52.9°F | +3.0°F | 25.50 | 19.6 |
| 2025 | 52.1°F | +2.2°F | 24.97 | 21.0 |
Over 86 complete years from 1904 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 0.8°F per century (+0.04°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00254335; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Kearney's climate compare?
Kearney is warmer than 66 of the other 136 places with their own NOAA record in Nebraska, and wetter than 53. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 49.9°F is warmer than 40%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Kearney is Dfa: continental, no dry season, hot summer. 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 Kearney share this climate record?
6 places have no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of their 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.
- Gibbon, NE1,917 people · 9 mi E
- Shelton, NE1,045 people · 15 mi E
- Glenwood, NE663 people · 4 mi NW
- Riverdale, NE245 people · 9 mi NW
- Amherst, NE203 people · 15 mi NW
- Odessa, NE116 people · 13 mi W
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Kearney's climate
What is the coldest month in Kearney?
January, with a normal high of 36°F and a normal low of 14°F. The warmest is July (87°F by day, 63°F at night).
Does it snow in Kearney?
Yes: 22 inches in a normal year, falling on 13 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in February (5.6 inches).
What is the rainiest month in Kearney?
May, with 4.40 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is January with 0.51 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Kearney in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Kearney in zone 5b in ZIP code 68849. By the same method at Kearney's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −12°F (30 years, 1991-2020): zone 5b.
How late can frost come in Kearney?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after April 30; in one year in ten it comes after May 12. Waiting until May 12 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Kearney in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- Nebraska climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Minden, NE15 miles from this station, 50.5°F a year
- Ravenna, NE22 miles from this station, 49.6°F a year
- Holdrege, NE27 miles from this station, 49.9°F a year
- Hastings, NE32 miles from this station, 51.9°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made