Philip, South Dakota climate: Normal weather by month, frost dates and records
Philip's normal year runs from 10°F January nights to 90°F July afternoons, with 16.3 inches of precipitation a year. (NOAA 1991-2020 normals)
In metric: a yearly mean of 8.7°C, January lows of −12°C, July highs of 32°C, 414 mm of precipitation a year.
- NOAA stationPhilip Airport
- Station IDUSW00024024
- Location44.05°N 101.60°W
- Elevation2,206 ft (672 m)
- Population752
On October 22, the normal high in Philip is 60°F and the normal low 31°F, and the chance of measurable rain or snow is 18%.
Normals describe a typical year at the station, not a forecast. The National Weather Service forecast for Philip.
- Jan 34° 10°
- Feb 38° 13°
- Mar 49° 22°
- Apr 59° 32°
- May 70° 43°
- Jun 81° 54°
- Jul 90° 60°
- Aug 89° 58°
- Sep 79° 48°
- Oct 63° 34°
- Nov 48° 22°
- Dec 36° 12°
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 Philip each month?
July is the warmest month, with normal highs of 90°F; January the coldest, with normal lows of 10°F. The most precipitation falls in May (2.96 in), the least in January (0.43 in).
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. | Wet days | 90°F days | Freezing nights | Daylight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34°F | 10°F | 22.1°F | 0.43 | 5 | <1 | 30 | 9 h 10 min |
| February | 38°F | 13°F | 25.2°F | 0.47 | 5 | <1 | 27 | 10 h 30 min |
| March | 49°F | 22°F | 35.5°F | 0.89 | 6 | <1 | 26 | 11 h 50 min |
| April | 59°F | 32°F | 45.6°F | 1.71 | 9 | <1 | 15 | 13 h 20 min |
| May | 70°F | 43°F | 56.6°F | 2.96 | 11 | 1 | 4 | 14 h 40 min |
| June | 81°F | 54°F | 67.4°F | 2.90 | 11 | 6 | <1 | 15 h 30 min |
| July | 90°F | 60°F | 75.0°F | 1.83 | 8 | 16 | <1 | 15 h 10 min |
| August | 89°F | 58°F | 73.2°F | 1.48 | 8 | 14 | <1 | 14 h |
| September | 79°F | 48°F | 63.3°F | 1.23 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 12 h 40 min |
| October | 63°F | 34°F | 48.3°F | 1.45 | 6 | 1 | 13 | 11 h 10 min |
| November | 48°F | 22°F | 34.9°F | 0.49 | 4 | <1 | 27 | 9 h 40 min |
| December | 36°F | 12°F | 24.2°F | 0.44 | 5 | <1 | 31 | 8 h 50 min |
| Year (annual) | 61°F | 34°F | 47.6°F | 16.28 | 85 | 45 | 173 |
The same normals in °C and millimetres
| Month | High | Low | Mean | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 1°C | −12°C | −5.5°C | 11 mm |
| February | 3°C | −11°C | −3.8°C | 12 mm |
| March | 9°C | −5°C | 1.9°C | 23 mm |
| April | 15°C | 0°C | 7.6°C | 43 mm |
| May | 21°C | 6°C | 13.7°C | 75 mm |
| June | 27°C | 12°C | 19.7°C | 74 mm |
| July | 32°C | 16°C | 23.9°C | 46 mm |
| August | 31°C | 14°C | 22.9°C | 38 mm |
| September | 26°C | 9°C | 17.4°C | 31 mm |
| October | 17°C | 1°C | 9.1°C | 37 mm |
| November | 9°C | −6°C | 1.6°C | 12 mm |
| December | 2°C | −11°C | −4.3°C | 11 mm |
NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for this station. The nearest record that keeps one, Cottonwood (14 miles away), gets 38 inches of snow in a normal year; elevation and distance can change that.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00024024; 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 Philip?
Normal highs sit between 65°F and 85°F in May, June and September. Of those, September has the fewest days with rain (6).
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 USW00024024.
When is the last frost in Philip?
In Philip, the last spring frost (32°F) comes after May 11 in half of years and after May 24 in one year in ten; the first autumn frost comes before September 30 in half of years and before September 17 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 111 year in 10 after May 24; 9 in 10 after April 29
- First autumn frost, half of years before
- September 301 year in 10 before September 17; 9 in 10 before October 13
NOAA puts the median frost-free season at 141 days, and the season without a hard freeze (28°F) at 160 days.
A hard freeze (28°F) comes after May 2 in half of springs and before October 8 in half of autumns.
The USDA's 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts Philip in zone 5a in ZIP code 57567, the nearest ZIP area. By the map's own method, the average of each year's coldest night over 1991-2020, Philip's NOAA station is in zone 4b: the coldest night of a typical year reaches −21°F (23 complete years); the map interpolates between stations and terrain, so the station and the ZIP area can differ by half a zone.
Frost dates for every NOAA station in South Dakota · Frost dates by ZIP code
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals (frost probabilities), station USW00024024; 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 Philip?
In a normal year in Philip, 45 days a year reach 90°F (10 of them 100°F or more), 173 nights fall to 32°F or colder and 85 days bring measurable precipitation.
- Days at 90°F or more
- 45a normal year
- Days at 100°F or more
- 10a normal year
- Nights at 32°F or colder
- 173a normal year
- Days that stay below freezing
- 45high of 32°F or less
- Days with 0.01 inch of precipitation
- 85a normal year
The highest temperature in this station's record (since 1907) is 116°F, on July 15, 2006; the lowest is −35°F, on January 21, 1949.
The wettest calendar year on that record is 2019, with 21.99 in; the snowiest season is 1949–50, with 76.2 inches.
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 annual normals, station USW00024024; records: ACIS (NOAA Regional Climate Centers), station USW00024024. Records use complete months only; a month missing more than three days is left out.
How sunny is Philip?
Over a year 79% of the sunlight that would reach the ground under clear skies gets through the clouds in the area around Philip, 4.3 kWh per square metre a day. July is the sunniest month (87%) and April the cloudiest (73%).
| Month | Share of clear-sky sunshine | Sunshine, kWh/m² a day |
|---|---|---|
| January | 77% | 1.9 |
| February | 78% | 2.9 |
| March | 74% | 4.0 |
| April | 73% | 5.0 |
| May | 75% | 6.0 |
| June | 82% | 6.8 |
| July | 87% | 7.0 |
| August | 85% | 5.9 |
| September | 82% | 4.6 |
| October | 75% | 3.1 |
| November | 76% | 2.1 |
| December | 74% | 1.6 |
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 Philip need?
A normal year in Philip brings 7,131 heating degree days, 33% more than the median U.S. place (5,373), and 833 cooling degree days, 8% 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 2,861 growing degree days a year above 50°F.
| Month | Heating | Cooling |
|---|---|---|
| January | 1,328 | 0 |
| February | 1,114 | 0 |
| March | 915 | 0 |
| April | 583 | 1 |
| May | 284 | 25 |
| June | 58 | 129 |
| July | 6 | 315 |
| August | 15 | 271 |
| September | 138 | 87 |
| October | 522 | 6 |
| November | 905 | 0 |
| December | 1,263 | 0 |
| Year (annual) | 7,131 | 833 |
Source: NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals, station USW00024024. 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 Philip been warmer than normal lately?
2025 averaged 49.5°F, 1.9°F above the 1991-2020 normal of 47.6°F. 2 of the 3 complete years since 2021 ran warmer than the normal.
| Year | Mean | Against normal | Precip. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 49.4°F | +1.8°F | 11.72 |
| 2022 | 47.0°F | −0.6°F | 9.91 |
| 2025 | 49.5°F | +1.9°F | 17.49 |
Over 60 complete years from 1942 to 2025, the station's annual mean temperature rose at a fitted 2.8°F per century (+0.15°C per decade). A fitted rate summarizes the whole record; single years swing well above and below it.
Source: observed years: ACIS, station USW00024024; trend: NOAA GHCN-Monthly v4. A year counts only with all twelve months complete.
How does Philip's climate compare?
Philip is warmer than 80 of the other 99 places with their own NOAA record in South Dakota, and wetter than 4. Across the 7,247 U.S. stations with normals, its annual mean of 47.6°F is warmer than 30%.
In the Köppen classification computed from these normals, Philip is BSk: cold semi-arid steppe. 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 Philip share this climate record?
Kadoka has no NOAA station with 1991-2020 normals of its 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.
- Kadoka, SD530 people · 16 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 Philip's climate
What is the coldest month in Philip?
January, with a normal high of 34°F and a normal low of 10°F. The warmest is July (90°F by day, 60°F at night).
Does it snow in Philip?
Yes. NOAA publishes no 1991-2020 snowfall normal for Philip's NOAA station; the nearest record that keeps one, Cottonwood (14 miles away), records 38 inches of snow in a normal year.
What is the rainiest month in Philip?
May, with 2.96 in of precipitation in a normal year; the driest is January with 0.43 in.
What plant hardiness zone is Philip in?
The USDA's 2023 map puts Philip in zone 5a in ZIP code 57567, the nearest ZIP area. By the same method at Philip's NOAA station, the coldest night of a typical year reaches −21°F (23 years, 1991-2020): zone 4b.
How late can frost come in Philip?
In half of years the last 32°F night comes after May 11; in one year in ten it comes after May 24. Waiting until May 24 leaves about a one-in-ten chance of a later frost.
Nearby and next
- South Dakota climateThe statewide normals and every place in the state
- Cottonwood, SD14 miles from this station, 46.1°F a year
- Midland, SD22 miles from this station, 47.5°F a year
- Interior, SD27 miles from this station, 50.4°F a year
- Milesville (5 mi NE), SD32 miles from this station, 47.5°F a year
- Compare two placesMonth by month, side by side
Download these normals (CSV) · JSON · How these figures are made