Leap Day Climate Information

Although Leap Day is not an official holiday, it is an interesting event--and a climate conundrum: How do you compare February data when some months have an extra day? And because official meteorological winter is December through February, Leap Day is the last day of winter, which means Leap Years have an extra day of winter!

The following table shows the climate information for Rapid City, Lead, Gillette, Winner, and Lemmon on Leap Day. Average highs around the area on February 29 are in the upper 30s and lower 40s, with average lows in the teens to lower 20s. A wide range of temperatures has occurred on Leap Day, with record highs reaching the mid 60s to mid 70s, but record lows are still 5 to 15 degrees below zero. February 29, 1992 was the warmest Leap Day at all the sites, while the coldest temperatures occurred in 1996, 1960, and 1912.

2004 set several daily precipitation and snowfall records. Snow was over a yard deep in Lead on February 29, 1964, but record snow depths from 1936 still stand in Winner and Lemmon.

Temperature (F)	Rapid City	Lead	Gillette	Winner	Lemmon
Highest	74 in 1992	64 in 1992	64 in 1992	75 in 1992	70 in 1992
Lowest	-10 in 1960	-5 in 1996	-13 in 1960	-5 in 1996	-12 in 1912
Average High	42	39	42	42	37
Average Low	21	20	19	18	16
Precipitation (in.)	Rapid City	Lead	Gillette	Winner	Lemmon
Max Precip.	0.64 in 2004	0.90 in 2004	0.50 in 1916	0.25 in 2004	0.40 in 2012
Days Measured Precip.	11 times or 34%	11 times or 42%	7 times or 27%	3 times or 13%	5 times or 20%
Max Snowfall	10.2 in 2004	7.3 in 2004	5.0 in 1916	2.0 in 1980	6.0 in 2012
Days Measured Snow	12 times or 38%	11 times or 42%	5 times or 19%	2 times or 9%	4 times or 16%
Max Snow Depth	11 in 2004	37 in 1964	5 in 2012	16 in 1936	10 in 1936
Year Records Began	1888*	1909	1902	1910	1909

* Data for Rapid City was compiled from the office’s three locations: The original downtown Weather Bureau Office (WBO) from 1888-1942; the airport offices--first located where Ellsworth Air Force Base is now and the current Rapid City Regional Airport starting in 1942, and East Rapid City in 1996.