30-year climate normals
Sanborn County Climate and Weather Averages
Hottest month: July
86.0°average daily high. The coldest month is January, averaging a low of 4.8°F.
Sanborn County gets 24.6" of precipitation a year and 26.3" of snow, and 42% of it falls in May, Jun, Jul.
Temperature through the year
Each bar spans the average daily low to the average daily high for that month.
| Month | Avg high | Avg low | Precip | Snow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26.2° | 4.8° | 0.54" | 6.0" |
| February | 31.9° | 8.6° | 0.79" | 5.6" |
| March | 44.8° | 20.5° | 1.05" | 2.8" |
| April | 59.6° | 31.8° | 2.92" | 3.0" |
| May | 70.6° | 44.4° | 3.58" | 0.0" |
| June | 80.5° | 55.1° | 3.71" | 0.0" |
| July | 86.0° | 59.5° | 3.10" | 0.0" |
| August | 83.3° | 57.1° | 3.05" | 0.0" |
| September | 76.5° | 48.2° | 2.26" | 0.0" |
| October | 61.3° | 34.3° | 2.08" | 0.4" |
| November | 44.4° | 20.7° | 0.88" | 3.7" |
| December | 31.0° | 9.9° | 0.64" | 4.8" |
Rainfall by month
Precipitation is spread fairly evenly through the year here, with 42% falling in the wettest three months (May, Jun, Jul).
What this climate costs you
Degree days measure how hard a building has to work to stay comfortable. They are the reason two identical houses have very different power bills, and they are the link between the weather here and what you pay every month.
These are rough planning figures from degree days and the state electricity price, not a bill estimate. House size, insulation and fuel type move them a lot. See the full cost of owning a home in Sanborn County, where electricity is one line of eight.
Common questions
What is the weather like in Sanborn County?
Sanborn County averages a high of 86.0°F in July and a low of 4.8°F in January. Annual precipitation is 24.6 inches, including 26.3 inches of snow.
When is the rainy season in Sanborn County?
The wettest stretch is May, Jun, Jul, which accounts for 42% of the year's precipitation. Precipitation is relatively evenly distributed across the year.
How hot does it get in Sanborn County?
The average daily high in July, the hottest month, is 86.0°F. That drives 671 cooling degree days a year, which is what your air conditioning has to work against.
Does it snow in Sanborn County?
Yes. Sanborn County averages 26.3 inches of snow a year.
Sources
- Temperature, precipitation and snowfall normals: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, 1991 to 2020 Monthly Climate Normals, station FORESTBURG 4 NNE, SD US (USC00393029), 3.4 miles from the county centroid.
- Heating and cooling degree days: NOAA, same station and period.
- Annual figures on this page are the sum of that station's twelve monthly normals. NOAA also publishes a separately-computed annual normal, which can differ from the monthly sum by a few percent; we use the monthly series because the month-by-month breakdown above has to come from it.
- Electricity price: US Energy Information Administration, Electric Power Monthly Table 5.6.A, South Dakota residential average.
- Wet-season share is the wettest three consecutive months as a percentage of annual precipitation, calculated from the monthly normals.