With prevailing winds from the northwest and moist clouds approaching from the west, the Northern Hills climate is more moist that that of the Southern Hills. But the elevations and cooler temperatures tend to draw moisture from passing clouds.

Especially in the Northern Hills, north-facing slopes harbor more spruce, aspen, and birch groves. But these also grow in drainage areas of the Central Hills. Much of the rest of the Hills is forested with Ponderosa Pine. And the Eastern foothills have forests of oak and pine mixed.

Higher elevations of Black Elk Wilderness may develop a snow pack a foot deep or more in winter, but depending upon winter temperatures, snow in the Southern Hills generally melts down to a level than can be hiked through. Generally speaking, hiking can be done in Black Elk Wilderness throughout the year, but that sometimes involves treading through a foot of snow near Harney Peak.

The Northern Hills by early winter may have a snow pack that is too deep to hike through except in the foot hills. So down-hill and cross-country skiing, along with snowshoeing prevail in wintertime in the Northern Hills.

Our discussions of weather under Hiking Risks concentrate on the danger of lightning and thunderstorms in the warmer seasons and on the dangers of extreme cold in the winter months. There we discuss how the local climate affects the gear we take with us, precautions we take, and how we avoid the more dangerous extremes of weather. For hot summer days, heat exhaustion or heat stroke is a concern. These are discussed in various sections linked from our First-Aid pages.

Rarely does a summer pass without an incident of golf-ball-sized hail in the vicinity of Mount Rushmore and eastward. Such storms can occur from late May till end of summer, but they are not common, weekly occurances.

The National Weather Service provides month-by-month descriptions of weather patterns and average temperatures. Also available are maps of current snow depth or normal monthly snow depth for various locations in the Hills. (For current data, set the date in the left column of those web sites.) Northern State University discusses the climate and its affect upon the habitat and forests of the Hills.

The National Weather Service provides daily weather forecasts for various areas around the Black Hills. The NWS also has maps for average monthly precipitation and snowfall as well as much more information on a new climate page. For those with a favorite weather site, the zip codes for various areas of the Black Hills are as follows: