weather tidbits
by Bill Dean
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posted May 1 2012 1:25PM
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I spent some time this morning scouring our KWLM weather booklets as we begin the month of May. 2012 kicked off dry and mild. Less than 3.5 inches of snow fell and the coldest morning was January 19 when our thermometer registered a low of 13 below, which would turn out to be the coldest morning of the entire “winter” season.
In fact 3 new record highs were set in January 57 degrees on January 5th which smashed the old mark of 41 degrees for the date, 52 degrees on January 9th breaking the old mark of 44 established in 1958 and 54 degrees on January 10th which shattered the old record high of 42 set in 1928.
The warmer and drier trend continued in February as another new record high was set on February 2nd with a reading of 46 degrees that just nudged past the old mark of 43 set in 1962. As for snow, approximately 7 inches was measured at our studio with 2 inches noted over a 12-hour period from 2PM on the 20th until 2AM on the 21st. Far and a way the most snow on any one day occurred on February 29th when 5 inches of heavy wet snow fell that day. If this had not been a leap year, we could have said, “March came in like a Lion” March weather proved very tame by Minnesota standards however, with only a trace of snow and just over an inch of rain total for the month. No record highs were established but the record high of 65 was tied on March 14th. Ice out on Green Lake was March 19th earliest on record, the previous earliest out date was March 22nd in 1987.
The temperature exceed 70 degrees on 4 consecutive days March 16-19 so much for the saying “Beware the ides of March”
April “come she will” a line from an old Simon and Garfunkel tune, was a little cooler than what we had become accustomed to in March, but still ended up above average according to the State Climatologist at the National Weather Service in Chanhassen. We measured just over 2 inches of rain at KWLM while Gary our longtime weather observer at Sunburg, recorded 2.66 inches of rain. Our friends in the northern part of the state received between one and two feet of snow, far and way the most of the season in April a cruel reminder that “the possible snow season spans about 9 and a half months in the North Star State.
What will May weather bring? It is anybody’s guess. May can be one of the most beautiful months in Minnesota with an average low temperature of 47 degrees and an average high of 71 degrees. We receive an average 3.37 inches of precipitation in the month of May and could use at least that much to get our crops off to a good start this spring.
Tags : Topics : WeatherSocial : WeatherLocations : Minnesota
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