Libby, MT Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Average temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, with a derived climate comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Libby's primary NOAA station, LIBBY 32 SSE - 2 stations mapped to the area.
The climate verdict for Libby
Libby, Montana has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 40°F. At 47/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 17% of scores.
- 40°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 47/100
- comfort score, above 17% of station-mapped location scores
- 22.3"
- annual precipitation · 93" snow
Libby: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00245020 · Libby, MT 40°F mean · 22.3" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-MULTI · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 40°F
- RANK-COOL #412
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Palmer Job Corps
- PRCP-DRY 22.3"
- SWING-MID 38°F
- COMF-LOW 47/100
- LOAD-HEAT 9,042 HDD
- STN-MULTI USC00245020
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Palmer Job Corps, AK (+ 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 MT station list.
- Libby (this station) 40°F
- Hot Deer Lodge, MT 40°F
- Near Palmer Job Corps, AK 40°F
- Near Yampa, CO 40°F
- Near Moon Lake, UT 40°F
Libby sits in Montana, the #6 coldest U.S. state at 43.4°F statewide annual average - see all 50 coldest states ranked by NOAA normals
Climate Living Index · Libby
Libby: 14/100 · grade F
Libby publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Libby, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 47/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 22.3 in · 12.7 from 35 in | 55/100 · C |
| Annual temperature balance | 40.2°F · 27.3° from 67.5°F | 5/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 227 calendar days | 3/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 92.7 inches/year | 2/100 · F |
Libby · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Libby is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 22.1°F and warmest-month mean 59.8°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
- 59.8°F
- Coldest month
- 22.1°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 Libby sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Libby's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 94%
- Among 6,861 stations, Libby sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 31st percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 74%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Libby is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Libby compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Libby's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
47 17th percentile score exceeds 17% 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
Libby's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 54 complete annual observations from 1950 to 2020, LIBBY 32 SSE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.21°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Libby primary station fitted change +0.21 °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 | 30°F (-1°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 2.1" | 17.7" | 30.4 | 0.0 |
| February | 35°F (2°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 1.8" | 14.2" | 27.3 | 0.0 |
| March | 43°F (6°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 2.2" | 14.6" | 29.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 53°F (11°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 40°F (5°C) | 1.6" | 5.2" | 24.8 | 0.0 |
| May | 62°F (17°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 2.1" | 0.5" | 14.4 | 0.0 |
| June | 69°F (20°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 2.0" | 0.2" | 6.8 | 0.1 |
| July | 78°F (26°C) | 42°F (5°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 2.7 | 2.4 |
| August | 78°F (25°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 6.2 | 2.3 |
| September | 67°F (20°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 1.2" | 0.0" | 16.5 | 0.2 |
| October | 52°F (11°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 2.1" | 3.0" | 23.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 37°F (3°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 29°F (-1°C) | 2.9" | 15.4" | 27.2 | 0.0 |
| December | 29°F (-2°C) | 15°F (-9°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 2.6" | 21.9" | 30.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 81°F around July 28, short of 90°F on every date, while 227 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 14°F near December 25.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into May 7, then returns to freezing around September 24, covering 227 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 November 23, when 49% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 31 at 16%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 135 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 6 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 39°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Libby.
Where Libby Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 227 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 39°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Libby earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 17.7"
15.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 14.2"
11.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 14.6"
13.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.2"
11.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.5"
12.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.2"
10.3 days with precipitation
6.0 days with precipitation
5.3 days with precipitation
7.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.0"
11.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 15.4"
14.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 21.9"
14.6 days with precipitation
Libby spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 16% of the annual total and December through February 29%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Libby has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a 37.7°F seasonal spread.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: November averages 2.9" and July 0.8". The three wettest months together take 35% 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.
Rain reaches Libby in small, frequent amounts
Libby records about 134 days with measurable precipitation a year and 22.3" in total, which works out to roughly 0.17 inches on an average wet day. Precipitation on 37% of all days, arriving that lightly, is the damp many-grey-days pattern rather than the storm-driven one.
Places in this band read as wetter than their annual totals suggest, because what people notice is the number of overcast days, not the depth in the gauge.
- Most wet days: January, about 15 of them.
- Fewest: August, about 5.
- Average depth per wet day: 0.17 inches.
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 Libby
Libby averages 92.7 inches of snowfall a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 64 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: 92.7 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 64 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 42% 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
N/A
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
N/A
50% probability date
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
9,042
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
27
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside MT closest to Libby 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 (40°F here).
- Crosby, ND 40°F · 0.0°F off
- Ironwood, MI 40°F · 0.0°F off
- Wadena, MN 40°F · 0.0°F off
- Westhope, ND 40°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (22.3" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Hallock, MN 22.3" · 0.0" off
- Hillsboro, ND 22.3" · 0.0" off
- Miller, SD 22.3" · 0.0" off
- Memphis, TX 22.3" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Libby
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Libby's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 9,042 annual heating degree days against 27 for cooling. Its 37.7°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
A frost-free growing-season length is not available for Libby. That missing field is kept separate from the observed temperature and precipitation record rather than filled from a regional estimate.
-
1. Libby coldest normal
December
Averaging 22°F (-5°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Libby typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Libby snow peak
December
Libby averages 92.7 inches of snow a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Libby's climate
How much snow does Libby get? ▼
How cold does Libby get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Libby? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Libby's primary station: LIBBY 32 SSE (USC00245020). 2 NOAA stations are mapped to the Libby 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 3043450). Match rule for Libby: 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 Libby 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.