Climate twins of Rushmore, MN
These are the US cities whose 12-month climate pattern most closely matches Rushmore's. Each "twin" must be at least 140 miles away to avoid trivial near-neighbor matches. Similarity is computed across all 24 monthly metrics (12 average temperatures + 12 average precipitations), normalized so temperature and precipitation contribute equally.
Side-by-side: Rushmore vs its climate twin
Top match: Elk Mound, WI
| Month | Rushmore | Elk Mound | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | Low | Precip | High | Low | Precip | |
| January | 22.6°F | 5.3°F | 0.71 in | 23.4°F | 5.8°F | 1.03 in |
| February | 27.3°F | 9.6°F | 0.82 in | 28.4°F | 9.1°F | 1.10 in |
| March | 39.7°F | 21.2°F | 1.46 in | 41.3°F | 21.2°F | 1.97 in |
| April | 55.1°F | 32.7°F | 3.07 in | 56.5°F | 33.2°F | 3.08 in |
| May | 68.0°F | 45.8°F | 4.09 in | 69.6°F | 45.1°F | 3.91 in |
| June | 78.4°F | 57.4°F | 5.24 in | 78.7°F | 55.5°F | 4.83 in |
| July | 82.0°F | 60.8°F | 3.54 in | 82.8°F | 59.8°F | 3.61 in |
| August | 79.4°F | 57.8°F | 3.85 in | 80.4°F | 57.7°F | 4.18 in |
| September | 72.9°F | 49.1°F | 3.21 in | 72.3°F | 49.3°F | 3.65 in |
| October | 58.9°F | 36.3°F | 2.38 in | 58.0°F | 36.9°F | 2.49 in |
| November | 41.8°F | 23.2°F | 1.27 in | 42.0°F | 24.7°F | 1.79 in |
| December | 27.9°F | 11.8°F | 0.88 in | 28.7°F | 12.6°F | 1.35 in |
How this is computed
Each city is represented by a 24-dimensional vector: 12 monthly average temperatures and 12 monthly average precipitations. Each dimension is z-score normalized across the population of US cities, so that temperature variance and precipitation variance contribute proportionally. Distance between cities is Euclidean. We filter out cities within 2° latitude/longitude (~140 miles) so that "twins" mean climatically similar but geographically distinct — not just the neighboring town. Full methodology →