Minnesota WeatherTalk

Spotty rains to finish off May: Earlier this week May 24-25 brought widespread showers and thunderstorms to many parts of the state, with many areas receiving over an inch of rainfall. Portions of Morrison, Pope, and Sibley Counties reported some hail, while strong winds caused some damages in Blue Earth and Steele Counties. A tornado was reported near Amelia Lake in Pope County. You can read more about these storms at the State Climatology Office web site.

For some areas record daily rainfall amounts were recorded. Some of these included: 1.54 inches at Detroit Lakes and 0.95 inches at Walker on May 24th; and 1.53 inches at Chatfield and 1.77 inches at Spring Valley on May 25th. With the added rainfall this week, over 30 climate stations now report at least 3 inches of rainfall for the month, after a very dry first half of May. A few spots have recorded over 4 inches, including Spring Valley, Lakefield, and Windom.

Looks like for most areas of the state May will end up with n…

Widespread frosts May 14-18: A persistent dry high pressure system brought repeated frosts to many parts of Minnesota over the period May 14-18 this week. Many farmers have assessed the damage to crops, but in most cases corn was not significantly damaged because it was early enough in the growth cycle that the growing point was below the soil service. There was some damage to early planted soybean fields, but that represents a relatively small percentage of the acreage. Elsewhere some spotty damage to apple trees, grape vines, and fruit were reported.

In fact those 5 days also produced over 30 new daily record low temperature values across the observational climate networks in the state. A sampling of some of these new record low temperatures by date includes:
May 14: 22°F at Thief River Falls; 23°F at Ada and Red Lake Falls; 27°F at Long Prairie; 28°F at Walker; and 29°F at Collegeville and St Cloud.
May 15: 20°F at Hibbing (also coldest in the nation); 24°F at Orr; 26°F at Z…

Welcome rains arrive: After starting the month with 8 consecutive dry days, interspersed with some record-setting high daily temperatures (90s F in many areas), and low relative humidity (7-15 percent range) some widespread welcome rains blanketed the state this week. Total amounts were generally less than an inch in many northern and central counties, but many southern Minnesota observers reported over 2 inches, including Pipestone, Worthington, Albert Lea, Fairmont, New Ulm, St James, and Caledonia. A handful of observers reported over three inches for the week including Windom, Lakefield, and Sherburn (3.93”).

Prior to these rains there were 58 new daily high temperature records broken or tied around the state over May 6th and 7th. Some of these included:
May 6th: 90°F at Moose Lake; 91°F at Grand Rapids and Red Lake Falls; 92°F at Duluth, MSP, and Redwood Falls; 93°F at Milan.
May 7th: 90°F at Brainerd and St Peter; 91°F at Waseca, Gaylord, Morris, and Sandy Lake Dam; 92°F a…

Last Spring Frost?
The agricultural planting season has progressed well with a majority (close to 75 percent) of the corn crop planted and more than a third of the soybean acreage planted. In addition gardeners are removing mulches, planting potted plants outdoors and putting in garden vegetable seeds. Some have even mowed their lawns already. Many have been asking if the last spring frost is behind us.

For the Twin Cities Metro Area the last sub-freezing temperature reported at the MSP Airport was on April 12th with 27°F, but surrounding communities like Stillwater (26°F), New Hope (32°F), and Chanhassen (32°F) reported frost on April 29th.

For most other places in the state I think the last spring frost has already occurred as well. For southern Minnesota communities the last sub-freezing temperatures were on April 13th including:
30°F at Marshall
28°F at Albert Lea
27°F at Zumbrota
In western and central Minnesota counties the last sub-freezing temperatures were during the las…