Lincoln, Nebraska climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records

What is the weather like in Lincoln each month?

July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 89°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 14°F. The most precipitation falls in May (4.91 in), the least in January (0.73 in).

Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:

• Jan
• Feb
• Mar
• Apr
• May
• Jun
• Jul
• Aug
• Sep
• Oct
• Nov
• Dec

When is the best weather to visit Lincoln?

Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, September and October. Of those, October 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.

When is the last frost in Lincoln?

In Lincoln, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after April 24 in half of years and after May 7 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 13 in half of years and before September 29 in one year in ten.

Last spring frost, half of years after

April 241 year in 10 after May 7; 9 in 10 after April 10

First autumn frost, half of years before

October 131 year in 10 before September 29; 9 in 10 before October 24

NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 171 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 189 days.

A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 15 in half of springs and before October 22 in half of autumns.

The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Lincoln in zones 5b to 6a across its 17 ZIP code areas (6a in 68516, the largest). By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Lincoln's NOAA station is in zone 5b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −12°F (30 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.

Frost dates for every NOAA station in Nebraska · Frost dates by ZIP code

What hardiness zone is each Lincoln ZIP code in?

The USDA's 2023 map gives each ZIP code area one zone. Lincoln's 17 ZIP code areas run from zone 5b to 6a: 1 in 5b and 16 in 6a. Each ZIP's frost dates are in the frost tool.

How hot and how cold does it get in Lincoln?

In a normal year in Lincoln, 42 days a year reach 90°F (4 of them 100°F or more), 143 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 95 days bring measurable precipitation.

Days at 90°F or more

42a normal year

Days at 100°F or more

4a normal year

Nights at 32°F or colder

143a normal year

Days that stay below freezing

37high of 32°F or less

Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation

95a normal year

Days with 1 inch of snow or more

8a normal year

The highest temperature in Lincoln's official record (kept by the National Weather Service since 1887) is 115°F, on July 25, 1936; the lowest is −33°F, on January 12, 1974.

The wettest calendar year on that record is 1951, with 42.17 in; the snowiest season is 1914–15, with 59.4 inches.

How humid and windy is Lincoln, and how clear are its skies?

The summer (June-August) dew point averages 63°F. The muggiest month is July, with an average dew point of 65°F; the driest air comes in December (17°F). March is the windiest month (11.6 mph on average), and August has the most clear or nearly clear hours (77%).

How sunny is Lincoln?

Over a year 77% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Lincoln, 4.3 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (84%) and March the cloudiest (72%). Among the 459 U.S. places of 50,000 or more, that ranks tied 243rd (with 32 others) in sunshine.

How much heating and cooling does Lincoln need?

A normal year in Lincoln brings 5,856 heating degree days, 9% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 1,270 cooling degree days, 40% more 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 3,726 growing degree days a year above 50°F.

Has Lincoln been warmer than normal lately?

2025 averaged 53.3°F, 1.0°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 52.3°F. 5 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.

Over 125 complete years from 1887 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.3°F per century (+0.13°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.

Which places near Lincoln 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.

• Walton, NE624 people · 10 mi E
• Yankee Hill, NE250 people · 6 mi S
• Pleasant Dale, NE216 people · 11 mi SW
• Cheney, NE174 people · 12 mi SE
• Emerald, NE5 people · 5 mi SW
• Prairie Home, NE0 people · 12 mi E

What do Lincoln's other NOAA stations record?

2 more NOAA stations keep 1991-2020 normals in or near Lincoln. This page uses Lincoln Airport; the others differ by site and elevation:

Nearby and next

• Lincoln in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
• Nebraska climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
• Raymond, NE7 miles from this station, 50.1°F a year
• Crete, NE18 miles from this station, 51.1°F a year
• Seward, NE18 miles from this station, 50.0°F a year
• Ashland, NE23 miles from this station, 50.8°F a year
• Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side

Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made