Minnesota WeatherTalk

Preliminary Climate Summary for May of 2020: As the month of May winds down this weekend, we can summarize the character of its weather. It was a cooler than normal month (following the pattern of April) with most climate stations reporting a mean monthly temperature that was 1 to 3 degrees F below normal. There was roughly an equal distribution of warmer and cooler than normal days. The extremes for the month were 89°F at Granite Falls (Chippewa County) on the 1st and just 14°F at Brimson (St Louis County) on the 12th. No new high maximum temperatures were reported within the climate station network, but 46 climate stations reported tying or setting new low minimum temperature records. Many areas of the state reported multiple frosts during the month. The highest dew points (between 65 and 70 degrees F) were measured earlier this week. May brought a mixture of precipitation. Many portions of northern Minnesota reported snowfall earlier in the month, some of which disrupted th...

Record Rainfalls on May 17th: A nearly all-day “soaker” rainfall on Sunday, May 17th brought 2 to 4 inches of rainfall to many parts of Minnesota. Portions of Goodhue and Wabasha Counties reported over 4 inches of rain. Many long-term climate stations reported new record high daily values of rainfall for May 17th, including: 2.47” at MSP 2.45” at Red Wing Dam 2.42” at Red Wing City 2.35” at Faribault 2.31” at Theilman 2.25” at Zumbrota 2.23” at Albert Lea 2.14” at Windom 2.09” at Jordan 2.03” at Minnesota City 1.98” at Owatonna 1.88” at Winona Dam 1.55” at Lakefield Many other climate observers reported even higher amounts of rainfall but lack long-term climate records to compare to. Some areas of northern Minnesota were completely left dry and are starting to show larger rainfall deficits this month. For example, Wright in Carlton County has seen less than a third of an inch so far. Much of north-central Minnesota now shows up on the U.S. Drought Monitor as abnormally dry, for...

Snow on the Fishing Opener Followed by Multiple Frosts: For the Fishing Opener, Saturday, May 9th, Mother Nature brought a last gasp dose of snow to portions of Becker, Otter Tail, Aitkin, Cass, Wadena, Crow Wing, Cook, Beltrami, and Morrison Counties where typical reports included 1-2 inches of snow. Some of the snow was intense enough to actually stop fishermen and send them back to the docks. Since talking about the dry, clean atmospheric conditions across the state last Friday, over 90 percent of the state landscape has seen at least one frost. In many areas of the state overnight lows have dropped into the 20s F and even the teens. Brimson (St Louis County) reported just 14°F on the morning of May 12th while Preston (Fillmore County) reported just 18°F on the morning of May 10th (Mother’s Day), tying the coldest May temperature ever measured there. Some areas of western Minnesota and the Red River Valley have seen 7 or 8 mornings so far this month with freezing temperatures....