Lake Sharpe Prj, SD 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 Lake Sharpe Prj's primary NOAA station, LAKE SHARPE PRJ.
The climate verdict for Lake Sharpe Prj
Winter sets the terms in Lake Sharpe Prj, South Dakota. A pronounced 56.3°F seasonal swing and heating demand above twice the cooling total frame an annual average of 47°F. Its climate comfort score of 64/100 (good) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 49% of station-mapped location scores.
- 47°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 64/100
- comfort score, above 49% of station-mapped location scores
- 20.1"
- annual precipitation · 19" snow
- 152 days
- frost-free growing season
Lake Sharpe Prj: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00394766 · Lake Sharpe Prj, SD 47°F mean · 20.1" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 47°F
- RANK-COOL #1,784
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Mpls Flying Clo…
- PRCP-DRY 20.1"
- SWING-WIDE 56°F
- COMF-MID 64/100
- LOAD-HEAT 7,441 HDD
- STN-1 USC00394766
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Mpls Flying Cloud, MN (+ 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 SD station list.
- Lake Sharpe Prj (this station) 47°F
- Cold Howard, SD 47°F
- Hot Windom, MN 47°F
- Near Mpls Flying Clo…, MN 47°F
- Near Hawarden, IA 47°F
Climate Living Index · Lake Sharpe Prj
Lake Sharpe Prj: 33/100 · grade F
Lake Sharpe Prj publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Lake Sharpe Prj, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 64/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Snowfall burden | 18.9 inches/year | 50/100 · D |
| Precipitation balance | 20.1 in · 14.9 from 35 in | 48/100 · D |
| Frost-free season | 152 days/year | 27/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.7°F · 20.8° from 67.5°F | 26/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 178 calendar days | 26/100 · F |
Lake Sharpe Prj · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Lake Sharpe Prj is a continental Köppen climate: Dwa
Coldest-month mean 18.1°F and warmest-month mean 74.4°F place this station in continental, dry-winter, hot summer climates (Dwa). Class Dwa is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, dry-winter, hot summer.
- Köppen code
- Dwa
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 74.4°F
- Coldest month
- 18.1°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 Lake Sharpe Prj sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Lake Sharpe Prj's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 74%
- Among 6,861 stations, Lake Sharpe Prj sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 72%
- Lake Sharpe Prj's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 94%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Lake Sharpe Prj is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Lake Sharpe Prj compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Lake Sharpe Prj's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
64 49th percentile score exceeds 49% 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%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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 | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29°F (-1°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 0.5" | 2.7" | 31.0 | 0.0 |
| February | 35°F (2°C) | 10°F (-12°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 0.5" | 5.4" | 27.5 | 0.0 |
| March | 46°F (8°C) | 20°F (-6°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 0.9" | 3.0" | 27.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 59°F (15°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 1.8" | 2.6" | 14.8 | 0.0 |
| May | 71°F (21°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 3.1" | 0.0" | 2.0 | 0.7 |
| June | 80°F (27°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 3.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 3.7 |
| July | 88°F (31°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 74°F (24°C) | 2.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 12.1 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 2.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 10.3 |
| September | 78°F (26°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 2.0" | 0.0" | 0.6 | 4.3 |
| October | 62°F (17°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.6" | 0.1" | 10.1 | 0.3 |
| November | 46°F (8°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 35°F (1°C) | 0.4" | 1.2" | 26.5 | 0.0 |
| December | 34°F (1°C) | 11°F (-12°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 0.3" | 3.9" | 30.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 89°F around July 22, short of 90°F on every date, while 178 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 7°F near January 11.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 18, then returns to freezing around October 24, covering 178 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 30, when 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is December 18 at 7%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 71 wet dates a year.
The widest day
September 23 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 29°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Lake Sharpe Prj.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 2.7"
2.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.4"
3.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.0"
3.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.6"
5.8 days with precipitation
10.6 days with precipitation
10.4 days with precipitation
9.0 days with precipitation
8.5 days with precipitation
6.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.1"
5.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.2"
2.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.9"
2.2 days with precipitation
Lake Sharpe Prj runs a summer-peaked wet season
44% of Lake Sharpe Prj'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 June at 3.8", on a wide 56.3°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: June, May, July, taking 49% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: December at 0.3".
- Winter share: 7% 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 Lake Sharpe Prj's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 71 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 20.1" between them, or roughly 0.28 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 Lake Sharpe Prj
Lake Sharpe Prj averages 18.9 inches of snowfall a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 8 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: 18.9 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 8 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 9% 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 5
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 6
50% probability date
Growing Season
152 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
7,441
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
802
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside SD closest to Lake Sharpe Prj 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 (47°F here).
- Allison, IA 47°F · 0.0°F off
- American Falls, ID 47°F · 0.0°F off
- Cherokee, IA 47°F · 0.0°F off
- Forsyth, MT 47°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (20.1" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Bondurant, WY 20.1" · 0.0" off
- Clovis, NM 20.1" · 0.0" off
- Pasadena, CA 20.1" · 0.0" off
- Swan Valley, ID 20.1" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Lake Sharpe Prj
heating led · moderate · high swing
Winter and seasonal range jointly define this record. Lake Sharpe Prj logs 7,441 heating degree days, more than twice its 802 cooling total, while the typical coldest-to-warmest-month gap reaches 56.3°F. The annual mean therefore compresses two materially different seasons.
Lake Sharpe Prj's frost-free season lasts about 152 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Lake Sharpe Prj coldest normal
January
Averaging 18°F (-8°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Lake Sharpe Prj typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Lake Sharpe Prj snow peak
February
Lake Sharpe Prj averages 18.9 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Lake Sharpe Prj's climate
How much snow does Lake Sharpe Prj get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Lake Sharpe Prj get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Lake Sharpe Prj? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Lake Sharpe Prj's primary station: LAKE SHARPE PRJ (USC00394766). 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 Lake Sharpe Prj; 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 Lake Sharpe Prj 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.