Minnesota WeatherTalk

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Rain Helps Some Areas: Since last Friday (Aug 11) several days have brought widespread showers and thunderstorms to the state, especially western and central areas. Many climate observers have reported greater than one inch of rain, and some have reported 2 inches or more. August 13 and 14 brought the most significant rains to many areas, and in some cases record daily rainfalls, including on August 14th: 3,14” at Kimball 2.95” at Browns Valley 2.80” at Milan 2.42” at Wheaton 2.41” at Artichoke Lake 1.85” at Benson 1.43” at Milaca 1.40” at Madison With these rains overall soil moisture conditions improved in some areas (over 40 percent now rated adequate) and drought conditions diminished by some percentage points in the Moderate and Severe categories. At the State Fair: CATHY WURZER AND I WILL BE HOSTING THE 27TH ANNUAL MPR STATE FAIR WEATHER QUIZ FROM 2PM TO 3PM ON AUGUST 28 AT THE MPR STAGE (CORNER OF JUDSON AND NELSON) . PLEASE DROP BY IF YOU ARE AT THE STATE FAIR THAT DAY. T...

August warm start, but spotty rains continue: First 10 days of the month have brought above normal temperatures to all parts of the state, with several climate stations reporting daytime high temperatures in the 90s F on at least a couple of days. Coldest temperature so far this month was 38°F at Brimson (St Louis County) on the morning of August 10th. Rainfall has continued to be spotty and consequently highly variable as it was in July. Some climate stations have reported over 2 inches of rain this month thanks to a couple of thunderstorms. St Peter (Nicollet County) has reported 3.77 inches and St James (Watonwan County) has reported 2.39 inches. The climate station at Leech Lake (Cass County) reported a record daily rainfall of 1.22 inches on August 7th, the only record amount reported so far around that state. Spotty thunderstorms brought up to an inch or more of rainfall to portions of western and southern Minnesota on Thursday afternoon and evening, but again many areas we...

Brief July Climate Summary: Despite a very warm conclusion to the month, most areas of the state reported a mean monthly temperature for July that was 1 to 3 degrees F cooler than normal. Although there were many days that brought 90°F maximum temperatures to various parts of the state, there were a number of nights when the minimum temperatures dipped well below normal. According to NOAA data for the Minnesota climate station network, there were 19 daily warm maximum temperature records set or tied and 8 daily warm minimum temperature records set or tied. On the other hand, and mostly during the first half of July there were 65 cold daily minimum temperature records set or tied and 37 cold daily maximum temperature records set or tied, including an afternoon high of only 57°F at Two Harbors on July 20th. Extremes of temperature for the month ranged from 102°F at Canby (Yellow Medicine County) on the 27th to 33°F at Goodridge (Pennington County) on July 6th. Overall, most Minneso...