Minnesota WeatherTalk

Preliminary February Climate Summary: Despite some erratic fluctuations in daily temperatures most areas of the state are reporting an average monthly temperature that is within 1°F of normal. Only the 9th time since 1895 that the February mean temperature has been that close to normal. Extremes for the month ranged from 58°F at Bemidji (Beltrami County) on the 22nd to -40°F at Isabella (Lake County) and Cotton (St Louis County) on the 20th. Minnesota reported the nation’s coldest temperature (48 contiguous states) 8 times during the month and the National Weather Service had to issue a Wind Chill Advisory on several days. Most climate stations in the state reported below normal precipitation for the month. The exception was in southeastern and south-central Minnesota where some areas reported over an inch of precipitation, mostly thanks to the winter storm of February 9th. The highest reported precipitation came from near Austin with 2.10 inches. Most areas reported just a few

Perhaps the Last Arctic Blast: After moderating a bit since Valentine’s Day (last Friday), temperatures plummeted over February 18-20 this week with an Arctic high pressure system slowly moving over the state. Many portions of the state saw temperatures drop\ to the teens and twenties below zero, while areas in St Louis and Lake Counties reported low temperatures from -32°F to -40°F. For three days in a row this week Minnesota reported the nation’s lowest temperature. Even with sunny skies the daytime high temperatures remained quite cold. For February 19th Detroit Lakes reported a maximum afternoon temperature of only 2°F, and Warren (Marshall County) in the Red River Valley only reached a high of -3°F. The good news is that recent outlook guidance from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center indicates that for the balance of the month temperatures will trend upward either near normal or above normal. This means that at least for the southern half of the state we may have seen the

A Dose of Arctic Cold The passage of a strong cold front brought very cold temperatures to all of Minnesota over February 12-13 this week. Subzero temperature readings prevailed, with single digits below to teens below zero in southern counties and lows in the minus 20s F to minus 30s F in the north. Kabetogama reported the state low with -39°F on the morning of the 13th, which was also the nation’s lowest temperature. Then Isabella reported -40 degrees F on February 14th which was also the nation’s lowest on that date. Windchill readings ranged from the minus 20s to as cold as -48°F in the north (Fosston). For many parts of the state this was the third or fourth episode of dangerous wind chill conditions this winter, others having occurred over December 16-18, January 11-12, and January 16-17. Many stations reported high temperatures on Thursday that were still subzero. The Twin Cities made it up to a high of 1 degree F. Spring snow melt flooding potential is still high: