Record breaker: 2019 now wettest year on record for Twin Cities

This week's storm broke the record set in 2016.

Weather photos from St. Paul
After plows carved a driving lane, residents cleared snow off parked cars in South St. Paul on Wednesday morning, Nov. 27, 2019.
Andrew Krueger | MPR News

Chalk up another significant weather record for Minnesota.

Our latest storm dumped 8.3 inches of snow at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. That melted down into .79 inches of liquid equivalent. So, we saw about a 9.5:1 snow to liquid ratio with this system.

Our latest storm brings total precipitation at MSP Airport this year to 40.81 inches as of this morning. That’s good enough to break the record of 40.32 inches set just 3 years ago in 2016. Twin Cities precipitation records date back to 1884.

Rochester, too

Rochester broke the annual precipitation record back in September. Rochester now stands at more than 53 inches for the year. That’s an incredible 21-inches above average.

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Not done yet

Breaking the Twin Cities record for wettest year in November means we still have more than a month to go in 2019.

The next storm system due in Minnesota this weekend will likely deliver more than an inch of precipitation to much of Minnesota. Some of this could fall as rain for the Twin Cities.

NOAA GFS model precipitation output through Sunday
NOAA GFS model precipitation output through Sunday
NOAA via tropical tidbits

December’s average precipitation in the Twin Cities is 1.16 inches. So not only have we already broken the precipitation record in the Twin Cities, we’re likely to bury it by at least a couple inches by the end of the year.

Stay tuned.