Madeline Island, WI Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Pulled from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →: climate measurements used in PlainClimate's documented score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Madeline Island's primary NOAA station, MADELINE ISLAND.
The climate verdict for Madeline Island
Madeline Island, Wisconsin has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 41°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.
- 41°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 44/100
- comfort score, above 10% of station-mapped location scores
- 31.5"
- annual precipitation · 74" snow
- 142 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Madeline Island: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00474953 · Madeline Island, WI 41°F mean · 31.5" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 41°F
- RANK-COOL #549
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Plainfield
- PRCP-MID 31.5"
- SWING-WIDE 52°F
- COMF-LOW 44/100
- LOAD-HEAT 8,855 HDD
- STN-1 USC00474953
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Plainfield, VT (+ 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 WI station list.
- Madeline Island (this station) 41°F
- Cold Greenville Main…, ME 41°F
- Hot Chatham, MI 41°F
- Near Plainfield, VT 41°F
- Near Sandstone, MN 41°F
Climate Living Index · Madeline Island
Madeline Island: 28/100 · grade F
Madeline Island publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Madeline Island, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 44/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 31.5 in · 3.5 from 35 in | 87/100 · A |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 180 calendar days | 25/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 142 days/year | 20/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 73.5 inches/year | 9/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 41.3°F · 26.2° from 67.5°F | 8/100 · F |
Madeline Island · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Madeline Island is a continental Köppen climate: Dfb
Coldest-month mean 14.4°F and warmest-month mean 66.4°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
- 66.4°F
- Coldest month
- 14.4°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 Madeline Island sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Madeline Island's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 92%
- Among 6,861 stations, Madeline Island sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 42nd percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 86%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Madeline Island is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Madeline Island compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Madeline Island'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
Madeline Island's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 47 complete annual observations from 1945 to 2019, MADELINE ISLAND warmed at a fitted rate of 0.12°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Madeline Island primary station fitted change +0.12 °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 | 22°F (-5°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 14°F (-10°C) | 1.5" | 18.8" | 30.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 26°F (-3°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 17°F (-9°C) | 1.1" | 14.1" | 27.5 | 0.0 |
| March | 37°F (3°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 1.8" | 11.5" | 29.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 48°F (9°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 2.9" | 5.3" | 22.4 | 0.0 |
| May | 61°F (16°C) | 38°F (4°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 3.3" | 0.3" | 7.0 | 0.1 |
| June | 71°F (22°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 3.6" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 0.4 |
| July | 77°F (25°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 3.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.2 |
| August | 76°F (24°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 3.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.8 |
| September | 68°F (20°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 58°F (15°C) | 3.1" | 0.0" | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| October | 54°F (12°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 3.2" | 0.7" | 9.2 | 0.0 |
| November | 40°F (4°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 2.3" | 6.4" | 23.7 | 0.0 |
| December | 28°F (-2°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 1.8" | 16.4" | 30.2 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 78°F around July 23, short of 90°F on every date, while 180 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 5°F near January 29.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 26, then returns to freezing around October 30, covering 180 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 October 16, when 37% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is March 1 at 27%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 121 wet dates a year.
The widest day
May 22 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 23°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Madeline Island.
Where Madeline Island Stands Nationally
Freezing is routine here by normals standards — the normal low reaches 32°F or colder on about 180 nights a year, more than most ranked stations.
Madeline Island earns one nationally notable standing (outer quintile) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations, middle-of-the-pack metrics stay silent here.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 18.8"
11.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 14.1"
7.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 11.5"
8.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.3"
10.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
10.8 days with precipitation
10.7 days with precipitation
10.1 days with precipitation
8.7 days with precipitation
10.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.7"
11.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.4"
9.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 16.4"
10.8 days with precipitation
Madeline Island spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 33% of the annual total and December through February 14%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Madeline Island has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 52°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: July averages 3.8" and February 1.1". The three wettest months together take 34% 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 Madeline Island's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 120 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 31.5" between them, or roughly 0.26 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 Madeline Island
Madeline Island averages 73.5 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 38 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: 73.5 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 38 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 23% 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 9
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 20
50% probability date
Growing Season
142 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,855
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
244
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside WI closest to Madeline Island 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 (41°F here).
- Ashley, ND 41°F · 0.0°F off
- Chester, MT 41°F · 0.0°F off
- Plainfield, VT 41°F · 0.0°F off
- Two Harbors, MN 41°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (31.5" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Moose Lake, MN 31.5" · 0.0" off
- Pleasanton, TX 31.5" · 0.0" off
- Santa Rosa, CA 31.5" · 0.0" off
- Tekamah, NE 31.5" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Madeline Island
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Madeline Island's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,855 annual heating degree days against 244 for cooling. Its 52.0°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 142 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. Madeline Island coldest normal
January
Averaging 14°F (-10°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Madeline Island typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Madeline Island snow peak
January
Madeline Island averages 73.5 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Madeline Island's climate
How much snow does Madeline Island get? ▼
How cold does Madeline Island get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Madeline Island? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Madeline Island's primary station: MADELINE ISLAND (USC00474953). 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 Madeline Island; 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 Madeline Island 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.