Virginia City, NV Climate: Temperature & Rain by Month
Explore NOAA NCEI's 1991–2020 climate normals → and a clearly labeled PlainClimate comfort calculation
30-year climate normals (1991-2020) from Virginia City's primary NOAA station, VIRGINIA CITY.
The climate verdict for Virginia City
Dryness leads the climate profile for Virginia City, Nevada, with 11.7 inches of precipitation a year. NOAA records an annual average of 51°F. At 49/100 (moderate) the climate comfort score falls in the bottom third of the station-mapped U.S. score corpus, exceeding only 18% of scores.
- 51°F
- yearly average temperature, NOAA normal
- 49/100
- comfort score, above 18% of station-mapped location scores
- 11.7"
- annual precipitation · 46" snow
- 158 days
- growing season, frost-free days
Virginia City: NOAA 1991-2020 normals describe a typical year, not a forecast. Method: /methodology.
Normals record plate
Sheet USC00268761 · Virginia City, NV 51°F mean · 11.7" precip
TEMP-COOL · RANK-MID · PHOTO-FINISH · PRCP-ARID · SWING-MID · COMF-LOW · LOAD-HEAT · STN-1 · BOOK-FULL
- TEMP-COOL 51°F
- RANK-MID #2,950
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Dehart Dam
- PRCP-ARID 11.7"
- SWING-MID 39°F
- COMF-LOW 49/100
- LOAD-HEAT 5,864 HDD
- STN-1 USC00268761
- BOOK-FULL 6/6 fields
Nearest mean-temperature peer: Dehart Dam, PA (+ 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 NV station list.
- Virginia City (this station) 51°F
- Hot Dehart Dam, PA 51°F
- Near Rochester, MA 51°F
- Near Taunton, MA 51°F
- Cold Colorado Springs, CO 50°F
Climate Living Index · Virginia City
Virginia City: 43/100 · grade D
Virginia City publishes 5 of 6 Living Index dimensions (NOAA annual/seasonal normals · NOAA daily multivariate normals); 1 missing weight rescale to 100.
PlainClimate-derived for Virginia City, not an official NOAA rating. Rankings still use Comfort Score 49/100 (separate formula). Breakpoints and limits.
| Dimension | Station value | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Normal heat + freeze calendar | 111 calendar days | 70/100 · B |
| Annual temperature balance | 50.6°F · 16.9° from 67.5°F | 43/100 · D |
| Frost-free season | 158 days/year | 32/100 · F |
| Snowfall burden | 46.4 inches/year | 23/100 · F |
| Precipitation balance | 11.7 in · 23.3 from 35 in | 17/100 · F |
Virginia City · 2026-08-04 · NOAA NCEI Climate Normals · method · Comfort Score method.
Virginia City is a temperate Köppen climate: Csa
Coldest-month mean 33.4°F and warmest-month mean 72.6°F place this station in temperate, dry-summer, hot summer climates (Csa). Class Csa is the Peel et al. (2007) label for this station's monthly mean temperature and precipitation normals: temperate, specifically temperate, dry-summer, hot summer.
- Köppen code
- Csa
- Group
- Temperate
- Warmest month
- 72.6°F
- Coldest month
- 33.4°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 Virginia City sits across the climate record
Three NOAA fields for Virginia City's primary station, temperature, precipitation, and seasonal swing, are ranked against every station-mapped normal that carries the same field.
- Annual temperature
- 43rd percentile warmth
- Mid-pack annual mean versus 6,861 station normals.
- Annual precipitation
- Drier than 91%
- Virginia City's annual total ranks in the drier third of 6,352 measured normals.
- Seasonal temperature swing
- 32nd percentile swing
- Typical seasonal amplitude versus 6,861 complete station-years.
How Virginia City compares across U.S. station-mapped locations
Virginia City's comfort score vs. all station-mapped locations
PlainClimate composite comfort index (1–100), NOAA 1991–2020 normals
49 18th percentile score exceeds 18% 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%). This entry sits in this band.
- 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
Virginia City's measured station temperature trend
MethodologyAcross 31 complete annual observations from 1954 to 2016, VIRGINIA CITY warmed at a fitted rate of 0.42°C per decade. The line shows the fitted change relative to its first year, not raw year-to-year temperatures or a forecast.
- Virginia City primary station fitted change +0.42 °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 | 41°F (5°C) | 27°F (-3°C) | 34°F (1°C) | 1.8" | 13.0" | 24.4 | 0.0 |
| February | 43°F (6°C) | 29°F (-2°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 2.1" | 8.7" | 20.0 | 0.0 |
| March | 49°F (9°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 1.6" | 9.3" | 15.6 | 0.0 |
| April | 55°F (13°C) | 36°F (2°C) | 45°F (7°C) | 0.5" | 2.3" | 11.4 | 0.0 |
| May | 64°F (18°C) | 44°F (7°C) | 54°F (12°C) | 0.7" | 0.7" | 3.4 | 0.0 |
| June | 74°F (24°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.6" | 0.2" | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| July | 84°F (29°C) | 62°F (16°C) | 73°F (23°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 6.2 |
| August | 82°F (28°C) | 60°F (16°C) | 71°F (22°C) | 0.2" | 0.0" | 0.0 | 2.8 |
| September | 74°F (23°C) | 53°F (12°C) | 64°F (18°C) | 0.3" | 0.0" | 0.4 | 0.3 |
| October | 61°F (16°C) | 43°F (6°C) | 52°F (11°C) | 0.7" | 0.3" | 4.6 | 0.0 |
| November | 49°F (9°C) | 33°F (0°C) | 41°F (5°C) | 1.1" | 2.4" | 15.4 | 0.0 |
| December | 40°F (5°C) | 26°F (-3°C) | 33°F (1°C) | 1.9" | 9.5" | 24.6 | 0.0 |
The year, day by day
Summer here tops out rather than builds: the warmest normal high is 85°F around July 23, short of 90°F on every date, while 111 dates carry a normal low at or below freezing, the coldest 26°F near December 18.
The freezing stretch
The normal low stays at or below 32°F into March 7, then returns to freezing around November 18, covering 111 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 February 7, when 19% of years recorded at least a hundredth of an inch. The driest is August 27 at 3%. Summed across the calendar, that is about 37 wet dates a year.
The widest day
August 7 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 Virginia City.
Where Virginia City Stands Nationally
Aridity defines the water calendar: about 12 inches in a normal year lands this among the driest tenth of ranked stations.
Days and nights track unusually close together; the widest normal swing, about 22°F, is narrower than most stations record.
Virginia City 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: 13.0"
5.7 days with precipitation
Snow: 8.7"
5.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.3"
4.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.3"
2.5 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.7"
3.2 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.2"
2.0 days with precipitation
1.0 days with precipitation
1.1 days with precipitation
1.3 days with precipitation
Snow: 0.3"
2.0 days with precipitation
Snow: 2.4"
3.4 days with precipitation
Snow: 9.5"
4.7 days with precipitation
Virginia City's wet season runs through the cold months
December, January and February carry 50% of the year's precipitation here, while June through August contribute 8%. 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 39.2°F seasonal spread.
- Wettest month
- February, 2.1"
- Driest month
- July, 0.2"
- Wettest three months
- February, December, January (50% 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 Virginia City's precipitation splits across the calendar
About 37 days a year record measurable precipitation here, carrying 11.7" between them, or roughly 0.32 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 Virginia City
Virginia City averages 46.4 inches of snowfall a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals, spread across roughly 18 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: 46.4 inches of depth.
- Days recording measurable snow: about 18 a year.
- At a rough ten-to-one melt ratio, snow accounts for on the order of 40% 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 17
50% probability date
Last Spring Freeze
May 12
50% probability date
Growing Season
158 days
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
Annual totals indicate energy demand for heating and cooling
Heating Degree Days
5,864
Higher = more heating needed
Cooling Degree Days
629
Higher = more cooling needed
Warmest Month
July
Coldest Month
December
Nationwide similar cities
Other rankable U.S. places outside NV closest to Virginia City 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 (51°F here).
- Bellefontaine, OH 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Bridgeport, NE 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Brighton, CO 51°F · 0.0°F off
- Delta, UT 51°F · 0.0°F off
Closest by annual precipitation
Nearest out-of-state peers by annual precipitation (11.7" here), excluding temperature-peer places.
- Ephraim, UT 11.7" · 0.0" off
- Newman, CA 11.7" · 0.0" off
- Fairbanks, AK 11.7" · 0.0" off
- Alturas, CA 11.7" · 0.0" off
Snow and freeze rhythm
When cold and snow define Virginia City
heating led · dry · mid swing
Virginia City's energy balance leans toward cold weather: 5,864 annual heating degree days against 629 for cooling. Its 39.2°F seasonal range still makes the monthly rows more useful than the annual average alone.
Virginia City's frost-free season lasts about 158 days, a middle-length window whose endpoints matter more than the annual average. It describes freeze probability, not year-specific planting conditions.
-
1. Virginia City coldest normal
December
The monthly mean of 33°F (1°C) sits near freezing, so cold nights and above-freezing afternoons share the same month.
-
2. Virginia City typical freeze period
January through December
The station reports average freezing days from January through December.
-
3. Virginia City snow peak
January
Virginia City averages 46.4 inches of snow a year, with January the snowiest month on the normals.
Questions about Virginia City's climate
How much snow does Virginia City get? ▼
How cold does Virginia City get in winter? ▼
How much energy does heating and cooling require in Virginia City? ▼
Data Sources
Data source: NOAA U.S. Climate Normals v1.0.1 (1991-2020). All figures on this page are from Virginia City's primary station: VIRGINIA CITY (USC00268761). 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 a census-designated place (GEOID 3280000), not an incorporated municipality. Match rule for Virginia City: 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 Virginia City 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.