Minnesota WeatherTalk

Preliminary June Climate Summary: Despite a relatively even mixture of days with above normal and below normal temperatures, most climate stations report a mean monthly temperature for June that was close to normal or from 1 to 3 degrees F above normal. Extremes for the month ranged from just 25°F at Tower on June 2nd to near 100°F on June 29. Minnesota reported the lowest temperature in the nation only twice during the month. Rainfall for June was mostly below normal around the state, especially in north-central and northeastern counties (some communities there received less than 2 inches for the month). Southeastern Minnesota had the most rainfall with portions of Fillmore and Mower Counties getting over 7.5 inches of rain. Lanesboro climate station reported a new daily record rainfall of 2.91 inches on the 16th, and on the same date Preston reported a new daily record rainfall of 2.67 inches. On June 5th Grand Meadow reported a new daily record rainfall for the date with 2.4...

Rains and Hail on June 20th: Thunderstorms rolled across the state on Thursday, June 20th dropping mostly lighter amounts of rainfall, ranging from a quarter to a half inch. However some areas received well over an inch including Redwood Falls, Sleepy Eye, Howard Lake, and Buffalo. Around Owatonna they reported over 2 inches. Reports of widely scattered large hail came from Yellow Medicine, Watonwan, and Martin Counties, and a relatively short-lived tornado touched down in Redwood County near Clements. The rain showers were welcome in some of the drier northwestern areas. Historical Summer Solstice Traumatic Events: I thought I would spend this week remembering two famous weather-related historical events that occurred on the Summer Solstice (longest day of the year). The most recent one was June 21st of 1992 when southern Minnesota recorded its only summer solstice frost in history. Following the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, much of the northern hem...

Two June Frosts in the North: After seeing widespread frosts across northern Minnesota on the second of June (many morning low temperatures in the 20s F), June 13th brought widespread temperature readings in the 30s F around the state, and delivered a second round of frosts to northern counties this week. Cotton, Celina, Crane Lake, Cook, Embarrass, Eveleth, Bigfork, Floodwood, Wright, Hibbing, Aitkin, and Cloquet climate stations all reported frost on Thursday morning. This is a bit unusual in that places like Hibbing, Cotton, and Bigfork usually see one frost in the month of June, but not very often two or more frosts. Back in 1964 some northern climate stations reported 4 frosts during the month of June, while in June of 2004 Embarrass reported 11 frosts, probably a statewide record number. Weekly Weather Potpourri: This week NOAA announced that its flagship weather forecast model , the Global Forecast System (GFS) was given a significant upgrade to include a new dynamical ...

Severe Thunderstorms Lead Off June: June 4th brought some severe thunderstorms to Minnesota with some of them producing hail, strong winds and heavy rainfalls of 1.5 to 3 inches. There were over 25 reports of large hail (1” to 2” diameters0, and in Dodge and Hubbard Counties hail stones as large as tennis balls were observed. There were over 30 reports of strong winds associated with these thunderstorms, some with gusts from 60 to 80 mph. In Henderson (Le Sueur County) a wind gust of 85 mph was reported. There was a very brief tornado touch down in Olmsted County southwest of Rochester, with some significant damage to a home reported there. These storms brought widespread rainfall amounts from 0.25 inches up to 1 inch. However, some climate stations reported new daily record amounts, including: Grand Meadow 2.40” Lakeville 2.11” Cloquet 2.04” Spring Valley 1.50” Two Harbors 1.10” With some dry days this week, the acreage of soybeans planted across the state is now well over 50...