Olathe, KS 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 Olathe's primary NOAA station, OLATHE 3E.
The climate verdict for Olathe
Olathe, Kansas has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 55°F. It scores 78/100 for climate comfort (good), putting it in the top third of station-mapped location scores and exceeding 72% of them.
- 55°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 78/100
- comfort score, above 72% of station-mapped location scores
- 40.7"
- annual precipitation · 14" snow
- 202 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Olathe: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00145972 · Olathe, KS 55°F mean · 40.7" precip
TEMP-MILD · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-TOP · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-MILD 55°F
- RANK-UPPER #4,185
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Mound City
- PRCP-MID 40.7"
- SWING-WIDE 50°F
- COMF-TOP 78/100
- LOAD-HEAT 4,957 HDD
- STN-1 USC00145972
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Mound City, KS (+ 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.
- Olathe (this station) 55°F
- Cold Montezuma, KS 55°F
- Hot Pleasant Hill, MO 55°F
- Near Mound City, KS 55°F
- Near Garnett, KS 55°F
Climate Living Index · Olathe
Olathe: 67/100 · grade C
Olathe publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Olathe, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 78/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Precipitation balance | 40.7 in · 5.7 from 35 in | 80/100 · B |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 110 calendar days | 70/100 · B |
| Frost-free season | 202 days/year | 66/100 · C |
| Annual temperature balance | 55.1°F · 12.4° from 67.5°F | 60/100 · C |
| Snowfall burden | 13.8 inches/year | 58/100 · C |
Olathe · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Olathe is a continental Köppen climate: Dfa
Coldest-month mean 29.3°F and warmest-month mean 78.8°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
- 78.8°F
- Coldest month
- 29.3°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 Olathe sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Olathe's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 61st percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- 60th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- Wider than 79%
- Warmest-to-coldest month gap for Olathe is large versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Olathe compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Olathe's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
78 Top 28% score exceeds 72% 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%). Below this entry.
- 60–70: 1,236 station-mapped locations (20%). Below this entry.
- 70–80: 650 station-mapped locations (11%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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 | 39°F (4°C) | 20°F (-7°C) | 29°F (-1°C) | 1.3" | 3.9" | 26.5 | 0.0 |
| February | 44°F (7°C) | 24°F (-5°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.7" | 3.3" | 19.7 | 0.0 |
| March | 55°F (13°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 2.5" | 1.4" | 13.1 | 0.0 |
| April | 65°F (18°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 4.1" | 0.3" | 2.6 | 0.1 |
| May | 75°F (24°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 5.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.7 |
| June | 84°F (29°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 74°F (24°C) | 5.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 4.6 |
| July | 88°F (31°C) | 69°F (21°C) | 79°F (26°C) | 4.8" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 13.1 |
| August | 87°F (30°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 77°F (25°C) | 4.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 12.9 |
| September | 79°F (26°C) | 58°F (15°C) | 69°F (20°C) | 4.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.7 |
| October | 68°F (20°C) | 47°F (8°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 3.0" | 0.3" | 1.3 | 0.2 |
| November | 54°F (12°C) | 35°F (1°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 2.4" | 1.2" | 11.7 | 0.0 |
| December | 43°F (6°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.8" | 3.4" | 23.4 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 89°F around July 19, short of 90°F on every date, while 110 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 20°F near January 17.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 10, then returns to freezing around November 22, covering 110 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 4, when 40% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is January 20 at 19%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 98 wet dates a year.
The widest day
April 3 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 22°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Olathe.
Where Olathe Stands Nationally
Days and nights track unusually close together; the widest normal swing, about 22°F, is narrower than most stations record.
Olathe 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: 3.9"
6.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.3"
5.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.4"
8.1 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
10.2 days with precipitation
11.8 days with precipitation
9.7 days with precipitation
8.6 days with precipitation
7.5 days with precipitation
8.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
7.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.2"
6.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 3.4"
6.4 days with precipitation
Olathe runs a summer-peaked wet season
35% of Olathe'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 5.3", on a wide 49.5°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, June, July, taking 37% of the annual total between them.
- Driest month: January at 1.3".
- Winter share: 12% 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.
When it rains in Olathe, it arrives in quantity
40.7" of precipitation falls across only about 97 wet days here, averaging 0.42 inches each. Fewer days carry more water: the year's total is delivered in comparatively heavy events rather than persistent damp.
- Days with measurable precipitation
- about 97 a year, 27% of all days
- Average depth per wet day
- 0.42 inches
- Most wet days
- May, about 12
- Fewest wet days
- February, about 6
A wet day is one recording at least 0.01 inches. These are 1991-2020 normals: they describe an average year, and a per-day average is not a forecast of any individual storm.
Winter brings real snow to Olathe
Olathe averages 13.8 inches of snowfall a year, with January 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: 13.8 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 3% 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 29
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
April 10
50% probability date
Growing Season
202 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
4,957
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
1,382
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside KS closest to Olathe 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 (55°F here).
- Atlantic City, NJ 55°F · 0.0°F off
- Bluff, UT 55°F · 0.0°F off
- Nashville, IL 55°F · 0.0°F off
- Oneida, TN 55°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (40.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Millersburg, OH 40.7" · 0.0" off
- Green City, MO 40.7" · 0.0" off
- Rochester, IN 40.8" · 0.0" off
- Cobleskill, NY 40.7" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Olathe
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Olathe's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 4,957 annual heating degree days against 1,382 for cooling. Its 49.5°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Olathe's frost-free season lasts about 202 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Olathe coldest normal
January
The monthly mean of 29°F (-1°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Olathe typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Olathe snow peak
January
Olathe averages 13.8 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Olathe's climate
How much snow does Olathe get? ▼
How many days above 90°F does Olathe get? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Olathe? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Olathe's primary station: OLATHE 3E (USC00145972). 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 2052575). Match rule for Olathe: 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 Olathe 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.