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Weather extremes
How extreme does Rapid City's weather get?
The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest days Rapid City has recorded — the outer limits of what its weather can do, and how far they sit beyond a normal day.
The four kinds of extreme
The hottest, coldest, wettest and snowiest single days Rapid City has recorded — each shown against what a normal day that time of year looks like.
That is about 22°F hotter than a normal July afternoon in Rapid City (typical high near 84°F).
The three most extreme on record
About 40°F colder than a normal February night in Rapid City (typical low near 18°F).
The three most extreme on record
About 74% of a typical May's rain in a single day (Rapid City averages roughly 4.1 in across the month).
The three most extreme on record
Close to a whole typical April's snow in one day (Rapid City averages about 10 in across the month).
The three most extreme on record
How hot and cold it gets, month by month
The shaded band is the normal range of daily temperatures for each month. The dots show the most extreme it has ever been — so you can see how far beyond a normal day the records really sit.
Rapid City's record heat sits well above even a hot day for the season — July's 106°F is about 22°F beyond a normal hot afternoon. Its record cold is just as far below a normal winter night — the dots mark how rare each extreme really is.
In plain terms
Methodology & sources
Temperature & precipitation — the official 1991–2020 climate normals from NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals, measured at Rapid City Wfo (NOAA GHCN station USC00396948), about 2 km from the city centre.