Olean, NY 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 Olean's primary NOAA station, OLEAN.
The climate verdict for Olean
Olean, New York has a mixed annual climate rather than one dominant extreme. Its NOAA normal shows an annual average of 46°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.
- 46°F
- average temperature, NOAA 1991-2020 normal
- 54/100
- comfort score, above 31% of station-mapped location scores
- 40.7"
- annual precipitation · 65" snow
- 157 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Olean: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00306196 · Olean, NY 46°F mean · 40.7" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-MID · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 46°F
- RANK-COOL #1,647
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Eureka Airport
- PRCP-MID 40.7"
- SWING-WIDE 46°F
- COMF-LOW 54/100
- LOAD-HEAT 7,122 HDD
- STN-1 USC00306196
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Eureka Airport, NV (+ 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 NY station list.
- Olean (this station) 46°F
- Hot Alcove Dam, NY 46°F
- Near Eureka Airport, NV 46°F
- Near Wellsville, NY 46°F
- Near Echo Dam, UT 46°F
Climate Living Index · Olean
Olean: 37/100 · grade F
Olean publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Olean, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 54/100 (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 | 165 calendar days | 36/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 157 days/year | 31/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 46.3°F · 21.2° from 67.5°F | 24/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 64.7 inches/year | 13/100 · F |
Olean · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Olean is a continental Köppen climate: Dfb
Coldest-month mean 22.4°F and warmest-month mean 68.6°F place this station in continental, no dry season, warm summer climates (Dfb). Class Dfb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, no dry season, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dfb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 68.6°F
- Coldest month
- 22.4°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 Olean sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Olean'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, Olean sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- 59th percentile wetness
- Neither arid nor torrential versus 6,352 station totals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 65th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Olean compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Olean'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 | 32°F (0°C) | 13°F (-10°C) | 22°F (-5°C) | 2.7" | 17.6" | 28.6 | 0.0 |
| February | 34°F (1°C) | 15°F (-10°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 2.0" | 13.7" | 26.2 | 0.0 |
| March | 43°F (6°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 2.6" | 10.1" | 25.0 | 0.0 |
| April | 57°F (14°C) | 32°F (0°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 3.4" | 1.8" | 15.5 | 0.0 |
| May | 68°F (20°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 56°F (13°C) | 3.7" | 0.0" | 1.4 | 0.0 |
| June | 76°F (24°C) | 53°F (11°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 4.5" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.4 |
| July | 80°F (27°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 69°F (20°C) | 4.3" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 1.5 |
| August | 79°F (26°C) | 55°F (13°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 4.0" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 0.1 |
| September | 73°F (23°C) | 49°F (9°C) | 61°F (16°C) | 3.9" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| October | 60°F (15°C) | 38°F (4°C) | 49°F (10°C) | 3.6" | 0.3" | 5.7 | 0.0 |
| November | 47°F (8°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 38°F (3°C) | 2.9" | 6.3" | 21.8 | 0.0 |
| December | 37°F (3°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 3.2" | 14.9" | 25.8 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 81°F around July 17, short of 90°F on every date, while 165 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 12°F near January 20.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into April 14, then returns to freezing around November 2, covering 165 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 6, when 60% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is September 1 at 40%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 179 wet dates a year.
The widest day
May 7 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 25°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Olean.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 17.6"
18.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 13.7"
15.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 10.1"
14.9 days with precipitation
Snow: 1.8"
14.7 days with precipitation
14.7 days with precipitation
14.3 days with precipitation
12.9 days with precipitation
12.8 days with precipitation
12.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
15.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 6.3"
14.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 14.9"
18.1 days with precipitation
Olean spreads its precipitation across the year
Neither half of the year dominates here: June through August take 31% of the annual total and December through February 19%, with neither reaching the 35% that would mark a distinct wet season. Olean has no dry season to plan around, though it does carry a wide 46.2°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
The gap between the wettest and driest month still matters: June averages 4.5" and February 2.0". The three wettest months together take 31% of the year, against the 25% a perfectly flat distribution would give them.
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. "Spread across the year" means neither the June-August nor the December-February share reaches 35%; it describes an average year, not the variability of any single one.
How Olean's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 179 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 40.7" between them, or roughly 0.23 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 Olean
Olean averages 64.7 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 44 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: 64.7 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 44 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 16% 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 11
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 7
50% probability date
Growing Season
157 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
7,122
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
356
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside NY closest to Olean 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).
- Chewelah, WA 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Douglas, WY 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Gardiner, MT 46°F · 0.0°F off
- Gordon, NE 46°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (40.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Sulphur, OK 40.7" · 0.0" off
- Alderson, WV 40.7" · 0.0" off
- Winchester, VA 40.7" · 0.0" off
- Winfield, KS 40.7" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Olean
heating led · moderate · mid swing
Olean's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 7,122 annual heating degree days against 356 for cooling. Its 46.2°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Olean's frost-free season lasts about 157 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Olean coldest normal
January
Averaging 22°F (-5°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Olean typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Olean snow peak
January
Olean averages 64.7 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Olean's climate
How much snow does Olean get? ▼
How cold does Olean get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Olean? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Olean's primary station: OLEAN (USC00306196). 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 3654716). Match rule for Olean: 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 Olean 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.