Olean, New York climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Olean's normal year runs from 13°F January nights to 80°F July afternoons, with 40.7 inches of precipitation and 65 inches of snow a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 7.9°C, January lows of −10°C, July highs of 27°C, 1,033 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationOlean
- Station IDUSC00306196
- Location42.07°N 78.45°W
- Elevation1,420 ft (433 m)
- From the center1 miles
- Population13,614
On October 23, the normal high in Olean is 57°F and the normal low 36°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 50%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Olean.
- Jan 32° 13°
- Feb 34° 15°
- Mar 43° 21°
- Apr 57° 32°
- May 68° 44°
- Jun 76° 53°
- Jul 80° 57°
- Aug 79° 55°
- Sep 73° 49°
- Oct 60° 38°
- Nov 47° 29°
- Dec 37° 21°
Each month: normal high (large) and low, °F. Fill: the month's normal mean, colder blue to hotter red.
What is the weather like in Olean each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 80°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 13°F. The most precipitation falls in June (4.48 in), the least in February (1.97 in).
Each month has its own page with the day-by-day normals, the month's records and its recent years:
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32°F | 13°F | 22.4°F | 2.73 | 17.6 | 19 | <1 | 29 | 9 h 30 min |
| February | 34°F | 15°F | 24.6°F | 1.97 | 13.7 | 15 | <1 | 26 | 10 h 30 min |
| March | 43°F | 21°F | 32.1°F | 2.63 | 10.1 | 15 | <1 | 25 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 57°F | 32°F | 44.5°F | 3.35 | 1.8 | 15 | <1 | 16 | 13 h 20 min |
| May | 68°F | 44°F | 56.0°F | 3.66 | 0.0 | 15 | <1 | 1 | 14 h 30 min |
| June | 76°F | 53°F | 64.2°F | 4.48 | 0.0 | 14 | <1 | <1 | 15 h 10 min |
| July | 80°F | 57°F | 68.6°F | 4.28 | 0.0 | 13 | 2 | <1 | 15 h |
| August | 79°F | 55°F | 67.0°F | 4.03 | 0.0 | 13 | <1 | <1 | 14 h |
| September | 73°F | 49°F | 60.8°F | 3.85 | 0.0 | 12 | <1 | <1 | 12 h 30 min |
| October | 60°F | 38°F | 49.1°F | 3.60 | 0.3 | 15 | <1 | 6 | 11 h 10 min |
| November | 47°F | 29°F | 37.9°F | 2.87 | 6.3 | 14 | <1 | 22 | 9 h 50 min |
| December | 37°F | 21°F | 28.9°F | 3.22 | 14.9 | 18 | <1 | 26 | 9 h 10 min |
| Year (annual) | 57°F | 36°F | 46.3°F | 40.67 | 64.7 | 179 | 2 | 150 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0°C | −10°C | −5.3°C | 69 mm | 45 cm |
| February | 1°C | −10°C | −4.1°C | 50 mm | 35 cm |
| March | 6°C | −6°C | 0.1°C | 67 mm | 26 cm |
| April | 14°C | 0°C | 6.9°C | 85 mm | 5 cm |
| May | 20°C | 7°C | 13.3°C | 93 mm | 0 cm |
| June | 24°C | 11°C | 17.9°C | 114 mm | 0 cm |
| July | 27°C | 14°C | 20.3°C | 109 mm | 0 cm |
| August | 26°C | 13°C | 19.4°C | 102 mm | 0 cm |
| September | 23°C | 9°C | 16.0°C | 98 mm | 0 cm |
| October | 15°C | 4°C | 9.5°C | 91 mm | 1 cm |
| November | 8°C | −2°C | 3.3°C | 73 mm | 16 cm |
| December | 3°C | −6°C | −1.7°C | 82 mm | 38 cm |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00306196; annual normals. Wet days: 0.01 inch or more; 90°F days and freezing nights: NOAA's day counts. Daylight: sunrise to sunset on the 15th, computed from the latitude.
When is the best weather to visit Olean?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June, July, August and September. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (12).
That is a measurement, not a recommendation: it counts the months whose normal afternoon high sits between 65°F and 85°F, where a light layer is enough by day.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00306196.
When is the last frost in Olean?
In Olean, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 7 in half of years and after May 22 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before October 11 in half of years and before September 29 in one year in ten.
Frost-free in half of yearsFrost in 1 to 9 years out of 10Frost most years
- Last spring frost, half of years after
- May 71 year in 10 after May 22; 9 in 10 after April 23
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- October 111 year in 10 before September 29; 9 in 10 before October 25
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 156 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 180 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after April 26 in half of springs and before October 24 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Olean in zone 5b in ZIP code 14760, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Olean's NOAA station is in zone 5b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −13°F (16 complete years).
Frost dates for every NOAA station in New York · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USC00306196; USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, ZIP listings: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed October 8, 2026; the station zone: ACIS daily lows, 1991-2020. A 10% date means one year in ten has a frost after it in spring or before it in autumn.
How hot and how cold does it get in Olean?
In a normal year in Olean, 2 days a year reach 90°F, 150 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 179 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 2a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- fewer than 1a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 150a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 48high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 179a normal year
- Days with 1 inch of snow or more
- 24a normal year
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USC00306196.
How sunny is Olean?
Over a year 67% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Olean, 3.6 kWh per square metre a day. August is the sunniest month (76%) and December the cloudiest (48%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 51% | 1.4 |
| February | 55% | 2.1 |
| March | 60% | 3.3 |
| April | 64% | 4.4 |
| May | 69% | 5.4 |
| June | 72% | 5.9 |
| July | 76% | 5.9 |
| August | 76% | 5.2 |
| September | 74% | 4.1 |
| October | 61% | 2.5 |
| November | 57% | 1.6 |
| December | 48% | 1.1 |
Source: NASA POWER solar climatology, 2001-2020 (CERES SYN1deg). Satellite-based, for the 1-degree cell (about 100 km across) around the station, so it describes the area rather than the airport.
How much heating and cooling does Olean need?
A normal year in Olean brings 7,122 heating degree days, 33% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 356 cooling degree days, 61% fewer than the median (908). Seven months need 300 or more heating degree days, a monthly mean of about 55°F or colder. For gardens and crops, NOAA counts 2,261 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,320 | 0 |
| February | 1,131 | 0 |
| March | 1,020 | 0 |
| April | 617 | 1 |
| May | 296 | 17 |
| June | 83 | 60 |
| July | 22 | 135 |
| August | 37 | 99 |
| September | 168 | 42 |
| October | 496 | 3 |
| November | 813 | 0 |
| December | 1,119 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 7,122 | 356 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USC00306196. A degree day is one degree of a day's mean temperature below 65°F (heating) or above it (cooling); utilities use them to estimate energy use.
Has Olean been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 46.6°F, 0.3°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 46.3°F. 4 of the 5 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 48.3°F | +2.0°F | 41.87 | 33.0 |
| 2022 | 46.1°F | −0.2°F | 42.61 | 64.9 |
| 2023 | 48.5°F | +2.2°F | 33.56 | 34.0 |
| 2024 | 49.2°F | +2.9°F | 43.17 | 47.9 |
| 2025 | 46.6°F | +0.3°F | 38.97 | 78.0 |
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USC00306196. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Olean's climate compare?
Olean is warmer than 46 of the other 130 places with their own NOAA record in New York, and wetter than 42. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 46.3°F is warmer than 25%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Olean is Dfb: continental, no dry season, warm summer. What the classes mean.
Places with the most similar year elsewhere
Measured month by month on the normal high, low and precipitation, among places of 20,000 or more people in other states:
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 normals for every station PlainClimate covers. Similarity: the root-mean-square difference of the 36 monthly figures, precipitation weighted so an inch counts like 6°F.
Which places near Olean share this climate record?
5 places have no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of their own, and this station is the nearest full record. A place's own climate can differ from these figures, by several degrees where it sits much higher or lower than the station, nearer the coast, or inside a large city's heat; for the larger places the next nearest records are named with their yearly mean, so the spread around them is visible, and places of 50,000 or more have their own page with NOAA's gridded normals.
- St. Bonaventure, NY1,961 people · 1 mi W
- Weston Mills, NY1,361 people · 4 mi E
- Foster Brook, PA1,019 people · 10 mi SW
- Eldred, PA727 people · 9 mi SE
- Rew, PA167 people · 13 mi S
Source: Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer (place centers) and Vintage 2024 population estimates. Distance and direction from the station to each place's center.
Questions about Olean's climate
What is the coldest month in Olean?
January, with a normal high of 32°F and a normal low of 13°F. The warmest is July (80°F by day, 57°F at night).
Does it snow in Olean?
Yes: 65 inches in a normal year, falling on 44 days with 0.1 inch or more, the most in January (17.6 inches).
What is the rainiest month in Olean?
June, with 4.48 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is February with 1.97 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Olean in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Olean in zone 5b in ZIP code 14760, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Olean's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −13°F (16 years, 1991-2020): zone 5b.
How late can frost come in Olean?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after May 7; in one year in ten it comes after May 22. Waiting until May 22 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- Olean in OctoberThis month day by day, its records and recent years
- New York climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Salamanca, NY15 miles from this station, 45.8°F a year
- Allegany, NY16 miles from this station, 46.0°F a year
- Franklinville, NY17 miles from this station, 45.5°F a year
- Port Allegany, PA20 miles from this station, 45.8°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made