Weather in Des Moines in February

The month to avoid. February is the month most people should skip in Des Moines. Highs sit at 1.6 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

February ranks 12 of 12 — near the bottom of Des Moines's year. September is the month that works, and the swing between the two is 53 points, which is a different holiday rather than a slightly better one.

Rain falls on only 6 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 1.6 °C the difference between a good day and a miserable one is entirely down to what you are wearing.

What the averages hide

Averages flatten a month, and this one hides a few things: 27 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest February day reached 20.7 °C and the coldest night fell to -25 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 26 mm — roughly 90% of the month's rain in one day.

February is moderately variable: 4 mm in the driest year against 56 mm in the wettest, around an average of 29 mm. Roughly two Februarys in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 13.8 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity runs at 81%, which at 1.6 °C means damp rather than muggy — the kind of cold that gets into a coat and stays there.

How February sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 2.3 °C warmer than January, and March adds another 8.1 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in February

10.6 hours of daylight, gaining 1.3 hours across the month. That is between Des Moines's extremes of 15.2 and 9.2 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Des Moines has no sea to moderate it, and it shows: 40.3 °C separates the hottest afternoon of the year from the coldest night. That is a genuinely continental range, and it means summer and winter here are barely the same place.

How busy it gets

Off season. The genuine off season: cheapest by a distance, with the caveat that some tours and restaurants close entirely.

Crowd levels are estimated from climate desirability and school-holiday calendars, not from visitor numbers.

February in Des Moines versus nearby

If Des Moines is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Omaha is close enough to be a coin toss — within a degree on temperature, 2 days less rain. Kansas City is close enough to be a coin toss — 3.8 °C warmer, the same number of rain days.

So: February is a compromise. September is 53 points better and is what Des Moines is actually like at its best — worth moving the trip for if that is possible, and worth adjusting expectations for if it is not.

Every month in Des Moines

See all twelve months in Des Moines, or where else to go in February.