Madras, OR 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 Madras's primary NOAA station, MADRAS 2 N - 2 stations mapped to the area.
The climate verdict for Madras
Dryness leads the climate profile for Madras, Oregon, with 11.2 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 49°F. At 54/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 31% of scores.
- 49°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 54/100
- comfort score, above 31% of station-mapped location scores
- 11.2"
- annual precipitation · 14" snow
- 138 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Madras: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00355142 · Madras, OR 49°F mean · 11.2" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-MULTI · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 49°F
- RANK-COOL #2,470
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Condon
- PRCP-ARID 11.2"
- SWING-MID 36°F
- COMF-LOW 54/100
- LOAD-HEAT 6,185 HDD
- STN-MULTI USC00355142
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Condon, OR (+ 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 OR station list.
- Madras (this station) 49°F
- Cold Redmond Roberts…, OR 49°F
- Hot Moro, OR 49°F
- Near Condon, OR 49°F
- Near Union, OR 49°F
Climate Living Index · Madras
Madras: 30/100 · grade F
Madras publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Madras, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 54/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Snowfall burden | 14.1 inches/year | 57/100 · C |
| Annual temperature balance | 49.0°F · 18.5° from 67.5°F | 36/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 178 calendar days | 26/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 138 days/year | 17/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 11.2 in · 23.8 from 35 in | 16/100 · F |
Madras · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Madras's normals sit in a dry climate class: BSk
Precipitation is low relative to temperature but above true desert thresholds: cold semi-arid steppe (BSk). Class BSk is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: dry (arid or semi-arid), specifically cold semi-arid steppe.
- Köppen code
- BSk
- Group
- Dry (arid or semi-arid)
- Warmest month
- 68.3°F
- Coldest month
- 32.3°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 Madras sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Madras's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 36th percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 91%
- Madras's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Narrower than 80%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Madras is compact versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Madras compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Madras's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
54 31st percentile score exceeds 31% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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
Monthly Temperatures
Average daily high and low temperatures by month
| Month | Avg High | Avg Low | Mean | Precip | Snow | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43°F (6°C) | 24°F (-4°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.4" | 5.3" | 25.0 | 0.0 |
| February | 46°F (8°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 1.1" | 2.2" | 21.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 54°F (12°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 0.9" | 1.2" | 21.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 61°F (16°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 1.1" | 0.1" | 15.5 | 0.0 |
| May | 69°F (21°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 1.3" | 0.0" | 4.9 | 0.4 |
| June | 77°F (25°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 2.5 |
| July | 87°F (31°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.4" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 13.8 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 68°F (20°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.6 |
| September | 78°F (25°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.5 | 2.9 |
| October | 63°F (17°C) | 35°F (2°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 0.8" | 0.0" | 9.0 | 0.0 |
| November | 49°F (10°C) | 28°F (-2°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 1.2" | 1.1" | 18.9 | 0.0 |
| December | 41°F (5°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 1.6" | 4.2" | 25.7 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 90°F around July 27, short of 90°F on every date, while 178 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 23°F near December 18.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 23, then returns to freezing around October 29, 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 January 4, when 35% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 11 at 7%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 79 wet dates a year.
The widest day
July 21 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 38°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Madras.
Where Madras Stands Nationally
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 11 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 38°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Madras 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: 5.3"
10.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.2"
7.6 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.2"
7.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.1"
8.2 days with precipitation
8.1 days with precipitation
5.4 days with precipitation
2.6 days with precipitation
2.2 days with precipitation
2.5 days with precipitation
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.1"
8.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.2"
10.3 days with precipitation
Madras's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 36% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 13%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a 36°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- December, 1.6"
- Driest month
- August, 0.3"
- Wettest three months
- December, January, May (38% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
Madras is dry, and what does fall arrives gently
Only about 79 days a year record measurable precipitation here, 22% of the calendar, and they carry 11.2" between them. At roughly 0.14 inches on an average wet day, this is not the damp drizzle of a marine climate; it is an arid record in which precipitation is both uncommon and light when it appears.
The wettest month by count is December at about 10 wet days; the driest is August at about 2.
A low per-event average in a dry record is a statement about typical days only. Arid regions can still take a large share of a year's total from a single convective storm, which a normal cannot show.
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, not the extremes within it.
Winter brings real snow to Madras
Madras averages 14.1 inches of snowfall a year, with January 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: 14.1 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 13% 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 4
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 19
50% probability date
Growing Season
138 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
6,185
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
367
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside OR closest to Madras 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 (49°F here).
- Altona, IL 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Burney, CA 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Cairo, NY 49°F · 0.0°F off
- Danville, OH 49°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (11.2" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Medicine Bow, WY 11.2" · 0.0" off
- Baggs, WY 11.2" · 0.0" off
- Ordway, CO 11.2" · 0.0" off
- Dinosaur, CO 11.2" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Madras
heating led · dry · mid swing
Madras's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 6,185 annual heating degree days against 367 for cooling. Its 36.0°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 138 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. Madras coldest normal
December
The monthly mean of 32°F (0°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Madras typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Madras snow peak
January
Madras averages 14.1 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Madras's climate
How much snow does Madras get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Madras get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Madras? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Madras's primary station: MADRAS 2 N (USC00355142). 2 NOAA stations are mapped to the Madras 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 4145250). Match rule for Madras: 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 Madras 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.