Minnesota WeatherTalk

Preliminary Climate Summary for May 2019: Cool and wet characterizes the month of May. On a statewide basis May of 2019 will rank among the 20 wettest in state history and among the 20 coolest in state history. This pattern has had significant impact on Minnesota agriculture, with only 66 percent of the state’s corn acreage planted by May 26th and only 35 percent of the soybean acreage planted. This marks the latest planting season in Minnesota on a statewide basis since 1979. For most of the state two-thirds of the days were cooler than normal. Most climate stations reported an average monthly temperature that ranges from 3 to 5 degrees F cooler than normal. Extremes for the month range from 91°F at Moorhead on the 30th to just 18°F at Brimson and Cotton (St Louis County) on the 7th. Precipitation was mixed with rain and snow during the month. Many areas of northern Minnesota reported from 1 to 6 inches of snow, while Duluth had the snowiest May ever with 13.3 inches. Rain ...

Wet Pattern Continues: Normal May rainfall values around the state range from a little under 3 inches to a little over 4 inches. Yet, after the first three weeks of the month over 110 climate stations report a total of over 4 inches for this month. Climate stations at Kimball and Melrose (both in Stearns County) report over 6 inches for the month so far. Earlier this week on Sunday, May 19th the observer at Grand Meadow (Mower County) in southeastern Minnesota reported rainfall of 3.25 inches, a new statewide daily record amount for that date (breaking the record of 2.90 inches at Littlefork back in 2007). Year-to-date precipitation totals are getting to be quite impressive in many areas of the state. Let’s take a few examples to illustrate. Marshall (Lyon County), Lake Wilson (Murray County), Faribault (Rice County), and Caledonia (Houston County) all report over 16 inches of precipitation so far this year (January 1 – May 22). Here are their normals for the January-May perio...

Cool and Wet Pattern to Prevail: So far this year 62-65% of all the calendar days have brought temperatures that are below normal. The late spring has taxed everyone’s patience, but especially gardeners and farmers. The temperature in the Twin Cities finally reached 82 degrees F on May 16 this week, the first such reading since last September 17th, a period of 240 days. If you think that seems like a long time, the climate history in the Twin Cities shows that from September 17, 1911 to June 22, 1912 there were no days with temperatures of 82 degrees F or higher, a period of 280 days, 77 percent of a year. Nocturnal thunderstorms on Wednesday night this week brought a half inch to an inch of rain to portions of southeastern Minnesota. Many were awakened by the thunder and lightning, a precursor to what is expected this coming weekend. The new seasonal outlook for the USA released on Thursday (May 16) suggests that for our region of the country we will see a cooler and wetter than...

Heavy rains and snow this week: Wednesday, May 8th brought from 1 to 2 inches of rain to many parts of the state in a storm that last for many hours. Late in the day the precipitation turned to snow in many northern communities dropping from 2 to 10 inches in portions of northeastern Minnesota. This was a distinctly untimely storm as many spring road projects had begun with excavations and Minnesota farmers were busy trying to plant crops. Several climate stations reported new daily record amounts of rainfall, including: 2.10” at Stillwater 1.92” at Spring Valley 1.87” at Rosemount 1.84” at Faribault 1.65” at Zumbrota and Red Wing 1.60” at Marshall The evening snow storm turned out to be record-setting for many communities as well. Those reporting new record daily snowfall amounts included: 8.3” at Duluth 6.6” at Wright (Carlton County) 6.0” at Cloquet (Carlton County), Isabella (Lake County), and Isle (Aitkin County) 5.0” at Wolf Ridge (Lake County) 2.0” at Babbitt and Cotton (St...

April Climate Summary: For the second consecutive year the month of April was cool, ranging from 1 to 4 degrees F cooler than normal for most climate stations in Minnesota. Extremes for the month ranged from -6°F at Marshall on the 14th to 86°F at Windom, Waseca, and Winnebago on the 22nd. Though it was a cool month, Minnesota reported the nation’s lowest temperature on only two days during the month. April was wetter than normal around the state, especially so in southwestern and southeastern counties. The state average total precipitation was nearly 3 inches making it the 16th wettest April in history. In south-central counties it was the 9th wettest April in history with an average precipitation of 4.75 inches, while in southwestern counties it was the 4th wettest April with average precipitation of 5.40 inches. Lake Wison (Murray County) reported its wettest April in history at 7.55 inches, while Lamberton (Redwood County) reported its 3rd wettest April with a total of 5.91...