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.

* 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.