Norton, KS 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 Norton's primary NOAA station, NORTON 9SSE.
The climate verdict for Norton
Norton, Kansas has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 53°F. Its climate comfort score of 59/100 (moderate) lands mid-pack nationally, exceeding 37% of station-mapped location scores.
- 53°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 59/100
- comfort score, above 37% of station-mapped location scores
- 23.1"
- annual precipitation · 22" snow
- 173 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Norton: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00145856 · Norton, KS 53°F mean · 23.1" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-MID · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 53°F
- RANK-MID #3,636
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Smithville Lake
- PRCP-DRY 23.1"
- SWING-WIDE 49°F
- COMF-MID 59/100
- LOAD-HEAT 5,548 HDD
- STN-1 USC00145856
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Smithville Lake, MO (+ 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 KS station list.
- Norton (this station) 53°F
- Cold Sharon Springs, KS 53°F
- Hot Lamar, CO 53°F
- Near Smithville Lake, MO 53°F
- Near Falls City Bren…, NE 53°F
Climate Living Index · Norton
Norton: 42/100 · grade D
Norton publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Norton, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 59/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 23.1 in · 11.9 from 35 in | 58/100 · C |
| Annual temperature balance | 53.0°F · 14.5° from 67.5°F | 53/100 · D |
| Snowfall burden | 21.8 inches/year | 47/100 · D |
| Frost-free season | 173 days/year | 44/100 · D |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 194 calendar days | 17/100 · F |
Norton · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Norton is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 29.0°F and warmest-month mean 77.8°F place this station in continental, no dry season, hot summer climates (Dfa). Class Dfa is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, no dry season, hot summer.
- Köppen code
- Dfa
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 77.8°F
- Coldest month
- 29.0°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 Norton sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Norton's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 53rd percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- 32nd percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 77%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Norton is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Norton compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Norton's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
59 37th percentile score exceeds 37% 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
Norton's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 92 complete annual observations from 1904 to 2025, NORTON 9SSE warmed at a fitted rate of 0.05°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Norton primary station fitted change +0.05 °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 | 42°F (5°C) | 16°F (-9°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 0.6" | 4.6" | 30.3 | 0.0 |
| February | 46°F (8°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 0.7" | 5.6" | 26.2 | 0.0 |
| March | 57°F (14°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 42°F (6°C) | 1.4" | 3.3" | 21.8 | 0.1 |
| April | 66°F (19°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 51°F (11°C) | 2.3" | 1.5" | 9.1 | 0.5 |
| May | 75°F (24°C) | 48°F (9°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 3.5" | 0.1" | 0.9 | 2.8 |
| June | 86°F (30°C) | 59°F (15°C) | 72°F (22°C) | 3.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 11.5 |
| July | 92°F (33°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 78°F (25°C) | 3.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 18.8 |
| August | 89°F (32°C) | 62°F (17°C) | 76°F (24°C) | 2.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 16.0 |
| September | 82°F (28°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 67°F (20°C) | 1.8" | 0.0" | 0.2 | 8.0 |
| October | 69°F (21°C) | 40°F (4°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 1.9" | 1.1" | 6.1 | 1.4 |
| November | 56°F (13°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 0.9" | 2.1" | 21.7 | 0.0 |
| December | 44°F (7°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 0.8" | 3.5" | 29.9 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Norton works both ends of the calendar. Normal highs climb to 92°F by July 16 and hold at or above 90°F on 45 dates, then normal lows drop to freezing or below on 149 dates, bottoming at 16°F around January 5.
When the heat sits
Normal highs reach 90°F from June 29 through August 12, covering 45 dates. The broader mild season, normal highs of 70°F or more, runs May 3 to October 14.
This counts calendar dates whose 1991–2020 normal high reaches 90°F. It is a smaller number than the 90°F+ day counts in the monthly table above, which measure how often the threshold was actually crossed in a typical year. A date can average 88°F and still exceed 90°F in half of all years.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 31, then returns to freezing around November 4, covering 149 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 May 24, when 31% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is January 11 at 10%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 68 wet dates a year.
The widest day
March 30 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 30°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Norton.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 4.6"
2.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 5.6"
3.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.3"
4.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.5"
6.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.1"
9.1 days with precipitation
8.4 days with precipitation
8.1 days with precipitation
6.9 days with precipitation
5.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.1"
5.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.1"
3.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.5"
3.1 days with precipitation
Norton runs a summer-peaked wet season
40% of Norton'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 May at 3.5", on a wide 48.8°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: May, July, June, taking 44% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 0.6".
- Winter share: 9% 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 Norton's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 67 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 23.1" between them, or roughly 0.34 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 Norton
Norton averages 21.8 inches of snowfall a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 10 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: 21.8 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 10 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 9% 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 17
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 27
50% probability date
Growing Season
173 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
5,548
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,204
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside KS closest to Norton 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 (53°F here).
- Centerport, NY 53°F · 0.0°F off
- Emmitsburg, MD 53°F · 0.0°F off
- Glencoe, KY 53°F · 0.0°F off
- Goldfield, NV 53°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (23.1" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Mccall, ID 23.1" · 0.0" off
- Sterling, AK 23.1" · 0.0" off
- Broken Bow, NE 23.0" · 0.0" off
- Junction, TX 23.0" · 0.1" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Norton
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Norton's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 5,548 annual heating degree days against 1,204 for cooling. Its 48.8°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Norton's frost-free season lasts about 173 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Norton coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 29°F (-2°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Norton typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Norton snow peak
February
Norton averages 21.8 inches of snow a year, with February the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Norton's climate
How much snow does Norton get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Norton get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Norton? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Norton's primary station: NORTON 9SSE (USC00145856). 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 2051500). Match rule for Norton: 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 Norton 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.