Picabo, ID Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Temperature and precipitation from NOAA NCEI 1991–2020 normals →, plus PlainClimate's derived comfort score
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Picabo's primary NOAA station, PICABO.
The climate verdict for Picabo
Dryness leads the climate profile for Picabo, Idaho, with 13.0 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 42°F. At 39/100 (below average) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 4% of scores.
- 42°F
- annual average temperature (NOAA normal)
- 39/100
- comfort score, above 4% of station-mapped location scores
- 13.0"
- annual precipitation · 46" snow
- 85 days
- frost-free days per growing season
Picabo: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00107040 · Picabo, ID 42°F mean · 13.0" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-COOL · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-DRY · SWING-WIDE · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 42°F
- RANK-COOL #686
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ St Ignace
- PRCP-DRY 13.0"
- SWING-WIDE 47°F
- COMF-LOW 39/100
- LOAD-HEAT 8,380 HDD
- STN-1 USC00107040
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: St Ignace, MI (+ 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 ID station list.
- Hot Copper Harbor, MI 43°F
- Near Small, ID 43°F
- Picabo (this station) 42°F
- Near St Ignace, MI 42°F
- Near Soda Springs, ID 42°F
Climate Living Index · Picabo
Picabo: 11/100 · grade F
Picabo publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Picabo, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 39/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Snowfall burden | 45.6 inches/year | 23/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 13.0 in · 22.0 from 35 in | 21/100 · F |
| Annual temperature balance | 42.4°F · 25.1° from 67.5°F | 10/100 · F |
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 219 calendar days | 6/100 · F |
| Frost-free season | 85 days/year | 0/100 · F |
Picabo · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Picabo is a continental Köppen climate: Dsb
Coldest-month mean 19.4°F and warmest-month mean 66.5°F place this station in continental, dry-summer, warm summer climates (Dsb). Class Dsb is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: continental, specifically continental, dry-summer, warm summer.
- Köppen code
- Dsb
- Group
- Continental
- Warmest month
- 66.5°F
- Coldest month
- 19.4°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 Picabo sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Picabo's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- Cooler than 90%
- Among 6,861 stations, Picabo sits in the cooler third of annual means.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 87%
- Picabo's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 69th percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Picabo compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Picabo's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
39 4th percentile score exceeds 4% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 40–50: 1,113 station-mapped locations (18%). Above this entry.
- 50–60: 1,329 station-mapped locations (21%). Above this entry.
- 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
Picabo's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 48 complete annual observations from 1960 to 2018, PICABO warmed at a fitted rate of 0.19°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Picabo primary station fitted change +0.19 °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 | 32°F (0°C) | 7°F (-14°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 1.8" | 13.9" | 30.9 | 0.0 |
| February | 36°F (2°C) | 10°F (-12°C) | 23°F (-5°C) | 1.1" | 8.5" | 27.8 | 0.0 |
| March | 47°F (8°C) | 19°F (-7°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 1.5" | 2.8" | 29.7 | 0.0 |
| April | 57°F (14°C) | 25°F (-4°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 1.1" | 0.8" | 23.7 | 0.0 |
| May | 67°F (19°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 51°F (10°C) | 1.4" | 0.0" | 11.1 | 0.3 |
| June | 76°F (24°C) | 39°F (4°C) | 58°F (14°C) | 0.9" | 0.0" | 3.2 | 1.8 |
| July | 87°F (30°C) | 46°F (8°C) | 67°F (19°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.1 | 11.3 |
| August | 86°F (30°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 65°F (18°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.3 | 8.9 |
| September | 76°F (24°C) | 37°F (3°C) | 57°F (14°C) | 0.6" | 0.0" | 5.9 | 0.9 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 1.1" | 0.3" | 21.8 | 0.0 |
| November | 45°F (7°C) | 18°F (-8°C) | 31°F (0°C) | 1.1" | 4.1" | 29.2 | 0.0 |
| December | 32°F (0°C) | 9°F (-13°C) | 21°F (-6°C) | 1.8" | 15.2" | 30.7 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 89°F around July 25, short of 90°F on every date, while 219 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 7°F near January 3.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into May 8, then returns to freezing around October 3, covering 219 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 1, when 23% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is July 15 at 6%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 60 wet dates a year.
The widest day
July 19 carries the biggest normal gap between afternoon and dawn, 41°F between the normal high and the normal low.
Look up any date
Any date's 1991–2020 normal for Picabo.
Where Picabo Stands Nationally
Winters bite deep and often: the normal nightly low dips to freezing or below on around 219 nights a year, placing this among the most frost-prone tenth of ranked stations.
Day-to-night contrast is extreme by national standards — the widest normal daily swing reaches about 41°F, sharper than nine in ten ranked stations see.
Picabo earns 2 nationally notable standings (outer quintiles) against 6,860 NOAA 1991–2020 normals stations; only those extremes render.
Monthly Precipitation
Average monthly rainfall and snowfall
Snow: 13.9"
6.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.5"
5.8 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.8"
6.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.8"
6.6 days with precipitation
6.4 days with precipitation
4.4 days with precipitation
1.7 days with precipitation
2.1 days with precipitation
3.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
4.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 4.1"
5.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 15.2"
7.0 days with precipitation
Picabo's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 36% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 11%. That is the cool-season-dominant pattern of the West Coast and the higher inland West, where storm tracks swing south in winter and summer turns dry; the thermometer meanwhile shows a wide 47.1°F gap between its warmest and coldest month.
- Wettest month
- December, 1.8"
- Driest month
- August, 0.2"
- Wettest three months
- December, January, March (39% of the year)
Shares are computed from this station's own 1991-2020 monthly precipitation normals. A cool-season label means the December-February share reaches 35%. Where snow falls, the monthly figures above report liquid-equivalent precipitation, so a wet winter month is not necessarily a rainy one.
How Picabo's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 60 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 13.0" between them, or roughly 0.22 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 Picabo
Picabo averages 45.6 inches of snowfall a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 19 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: 45.6 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 19 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 35% 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
September 9
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
June 16
50% probability date
Growing Season
85 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
8,380
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
185
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
January
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside ID closest to Picabo 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 (42°F here).
- Astoria, SD 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Chinook, MT 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Ridgeland, WI 42°F · 0.0°F off
- Ruth, NV 42°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (13.0" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Cheraw, CO 13.0" · 0.0" off
- Ennis, MT 12.9" · 0.0" off
- Jordan, MT 12.9" · 0.0" off
- Malta, MT 12.9" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Picabo
heating led · dry · mid swing
Picabo's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 8,380 annual heating degree days against 185 for cooling. Its 47.1°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Only about 85 days are frost-free in a normal year. That short interval is consistent with the cold-season signal, but the measure does not predict the exact first or last freeze in any one year.
-
1. Picabo coldest normal
January
Averaging 19°F (-7°C), this month sits below freezing for the month as a whole, not merely overnight.
-
2. Picabo typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Picabo snow peak
December
Picabo averages 45.6 inches of snow a year, with December the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Picabo's climate
How much snow does Picabo get? ▼
How cold does Picabo get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Picabo? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Picabo's primary station: PICABO (USC00107040). For informational purposes only.
Place identity: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer places. The conservative exact name-and-state crosswalk finds no Census place match, so PlainClimate treats this as a station-mapped location and does not claim it is a municipality. No exact Gazetteer row for Picabo; facility counts that depend on place identity are therefore an upper bound, not a municipal census.
On this page every temperature, precipitation, and derived score for Picabo 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.