Mission Ridge, SD 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 Mission Ridge's primary NOAA station, MISSION RIDGE 5NW.
The climate verdict for Mission Ridge
Winter sets the terms in Mission Ridge, South Dakota. A pronounced 55.3°F seasonal swing and heating demand above twice the cooling total frame an annual average of 46°F. At 52/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 24% of scores.
- 46°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 52/100
- comfort score, above 24% of station-mapped location scores
- 17.4"
- precipitation, annual total
- 154 days
- frost-free growing season
Mission Ridge: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00395648 · Mission Ridge, SD 46°F mean · 17.4" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 46°F
- RANK-COOL #1,647
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Greybull S Big…
- PRCP-DRY 17.4"
- SWING-WIDE 55°F
- COMF-LOW 52/100
- LOAD-HEAT 7,537 HDD
- STN-1 USC00395648
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Greybull S Big Horn, WY (+ 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.
- Mission Ridge (this station) 46°F
- Cold Miles City F Wi…, MT 46°F
- Hot Minnesota City…, MN 46°F
- Near Greybull S Big…, WY 46°F
- Near Spencer, IA 46°F
Climate Living Index · Mission Ridge
Mission Ridge: 29/100 · grade F
Mission Ridge publishes 4 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 2 missing weights rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Mission Ridge, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 52/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 17.4 in · 17.6 from 35 in | 37/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 173 calendar days | 30/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 154 days/year | 28/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.2°F · 21.3° from 67.5°F | 24/100 · F |
Mission Ridge · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Mission Ridge is a continental Köppen climate: Dwa
Coldest-month mean 18.6°F and warmest-month mean 73.9°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
- 73.9°F
- Coldest month
- 18.6°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 Mission Ridge sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Mission Ridge's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 76%
- Among 6,861 stations, Mission Ridge sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 77%
- Mission Ridge's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 92%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Mission Ridge is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Mission Ridge compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Mission Ridge's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
52 24th percentile score exceeds 24% 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 | Freeze Days | 90°F+ Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28°F (-2°C) | 9°F (-13°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 0.3" | 30.1 | 0.0 |
| February | 33°F (0°C) | 11°F (-11°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 0.6" | 27.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 44°F (7°C) | 22°F (-6°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 0.8" | 26.2 | 0.0 |
| April | 57°F (14°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 1.8" | 14.0 | 0.0 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 2.7" | 1.8 | 0.6 |
| June | 78°F (26°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 66°F (19°C) | 3.1" | 0.0 | 3.3 |
| July | 87°F (30°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 74°F (23°C) | 2.5" | 0.0 | 10.0 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 60°F (15°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 1.6" | 0.0 | 9.3 |
| September | 77°F (25°C) | 50°F (10°C) | 63°F (17°C) | 1.6" | 0.0 | 3.0 |
| October | 60°F (16°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 1.6" | 9.4 | 0.4 |
| November | 44°F (7°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 0.4" | 23.3 | 0.0 |
| December | 32°F (0°C) | 15°F (-10°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 0.4" | 30.1 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 88°F around July 26, short of 90°F on every date, while 173 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 9°F near January 22.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 15, then returns to freezing around October 26, covering 173 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 June 14, when 31% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is November 14 at 8%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 65 wet dates a year.
The widest day
September 6 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 27°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Mission Ridge.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall
3.9 days with precipitation
4.4 days with precipitation
4.1 days with precipitation
7.2 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
9.6 days with precipitation
6.3 days with precipitation
5.6 days with precipitation
4.5 days with precipitation
4.9 days with precipitation
2.1 days with precipitation
4.2 days with precipitation
Mission Ridge runs a summer-peaked wet season
41% of Mission Ridge'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 3.1", on a wide 55.3°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 48% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January 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 Mission Ridge's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 64 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 17.4" between them, or roughly 0.27 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.
Frost Dates & Growing Season
First Fall Freeze
October 7
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 6
50% probability date
Growing Season
154 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
7,537
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
733
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside SD closest to Mission Ridge 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 (46°F here).
- Cashton, WI 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Clarence, PA 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Eureka, NV 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Fremont, MI 46°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (17.4" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- La Grande, OR 17.4" · 0.0" off
- Dulce, NM 17.4" · 0.0" off
- Estes Park, CO 17.4" · 0.0" off
- Craig, CO 17.4" · 0.0" off
Data-derived climate profile
How Mission Ridge's climate pattern fits together
heating led · dry · high swing
Winter and seasonal range jointly define this record. Mission Ridge logs 7,537 heating degree days, more than twice its 733 cooling total, while the typical coldest-to-warmest-month gap reaches 55.3°F. The annual mean therefore compresses two materially different seasons.
Mission Ridge's frost-free season lasts about 154 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
July and January mark the typical warm and cold ends of the calendar in this dry, high-range record. The gap is 55.3°F, so a single annual figure is especially lossy; the annual average is 46°f. Compare monthly temperature and precipitation together before drawing a seasonal conclusion about Mission Ridge.
Mission Ridge's cold-season load does not imply a wet climate. Annual precipitation is 17.4 inches, which places the station in PlainClimate's dry range. Snowfall is not added to the interpretation because its annual value is missing. The snowfall and rainfall fields should be read separately rather than inferred from temperature.
These labels group NOAA 1991-2020 normals from Mission Ridge's primary station, so the winter figures are a thirty-year average and not a floor: a single hard season can run well below them. Treat each band as a descriptive range for Mission Ridge, not an official NOAA class or a year-ahead forecast.
Questions about Mission Ridge's climate
How much rain does Mission Ridge get? ▼
How cold does Mission Ridge get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Mission Ridge? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Mission Ridge's primary station: MISSION RIDGE 5NW (USC00395648). 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 Mission Ridge; 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 Mission Ridge 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.