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Duluth has a warm-summer humid continental climate.
Warm summers and long, cold winters with snow. Rain in every month — here's what that means in plain terms.
What this climate feels like
The four things a regular visitor actually wants to know:
Highs near 25°C in July. About 3 days a year above 32 °C.
Lows near −15°C in January. About 154 freezing nights a year.
About 799 mm of rain a year, plus 142 cm of snow. Snow falls through the winter months.
Cloudy skies much of the year.
What "warm-summer humid continental" means
Climate scientists sort every place on Earth into about 30 climate types, based on how hot, cold, wet and dry it is across the year. Duluth's type — warm-summer humid continental — sits in the broad family of four-season continental climates.
Researchers write climate types as a short letter code. Here is what each letter means:
Cities with the same climate as Duluth
A warm-summer humid continental climate (Dfb) — these recognizable cities share it. If you know one of them, you know roughly what to expect.
Duluth sits near a climate boundary
This city sits right on the line between warm-summer humid continental and the next type along. Different climate maps file it on different sides of that line; the lived weather doesn't change at the line — it's a naming boundary, not a wall.
Has Duluth's climate type changed?
Stable — Duluth's climate has held the same type between the 1971–2000 and 1991–2020 normals. The label is steady; the climate beneath it is still warming.
What this climate means for you
A ~5-month growing season — hardy apples, maples, root vegetables, brassicas. Heat-loving crops are marginal without season-extension.
Summer is the practical window; autumn brings spectacular foliage in many areas. Winter is for skiing and ice — beautiful but brutal.
Long, cold winters and warm but not hot summers. Heating dominates. A strong outdoor culture in summer to balance the long indoor winter.
Where these numbers come from
The climate type and the month-by-month figures on this page are computed from Duluth's measured 30-year climate normals (1991–2020) — the same official records behind Duluth's main climate page, so the two always agree.
Long-range climate maps measure things slightly differently and can place a city in a neighbouring category. Where they differ, this page uses the measured station record as the climate today.
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at Superior (NOAA GHCN station USC00478349), about 7 km from the city centre.