Weather in Sioux Falls in March

A hard month. March asks something of you. Go in knowing what. Highs sit at 8 °C and the day is short; this is an indoors-with-excursions month, not an outdoors-all-day one.

March ranks 9 of 12 in Sioux Falls: past the worst of the year but short of September, which is the month to book if the dates are open.

Rain falls on only 5 days, so an itinerary with no wet-weather fallback is a reasonable risk. Layers, and a genuinely waterproof outer — at 8 °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: 25 nights drop below freezing, so anything left outside stays frozen. Across the twenty years measured, the hottest March day reached 28.9 °C and the coldest night fell to -29.1 °C, and the wettest single day dropped 54 mm — roughly 159% of the month's rain in one day.

March is moderately variable: 6 mm in the driest year against 85 mm in the wettest, around an average of 34 mm. Roughly two Marchs in three land near that average, and the third does something else entirely.

Wind is light at 14.7 km/h, so the temperature on the page is close to the temperature on your skin, and humidity is unremarkable at 71%.

How March sits in the year

The month is on the way up: 8.4 °C warmer than February, and April adds another 7.2 °C. Late in the month feels noticeably different from the start of it, which is worth knowing if the trip is short.

Daylight in March

11.8 hours of daylight, gaining 1.5 hours across the month. That is between Sioux Falls's extremes of 15.4 and 9 hours, so days are long enough not to constrain the plan.

An inland climate

Sioux Falls has no sea to moderate it, and it shows: 43 °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

Quiet. Few other visitors, cheaper rooms, and a real chance some seasonal operators are shut.

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

March in Sioux Falls versus nearby

If Sioux Falls is one option among several, the nearby comparison is worth making. Omaha is a better bet in March — 2.6 °C warmer, 2 days more rain. Minneapolis is the weaker option in March — 2.7 °C cooler, 2 days more rain.

So: March is a compromise. September is 37 points better and is what Sioux Falls 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 Sioux Falls

See all twelve months in Sioux Falls, or where else to go in March.