Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

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The months of March through May are considered “meteorological spring” for record-keeping purposes. A lot of landscape change occurs in Minnesota over the next three months. We go from a snow-covered landscape, the green grass, trees and blooming flowers in the next 90 days. Our lakes go from frozen white to deep blue.

Final numbers are still trickling in for meteorological winter. Even with our frigid February, winter was milder than average overall. The Twin Cities snow and cold index shows a low-end moderate winter overall. 

It looks like the Twin Cities will come in around 1 to 2 degrees above average overall for meteorological winter. Here are the monthly temperatures vs. average for meteorological winter at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. 

You can see on the graph below how winter started mild, then temperatures crashed in February as the polar vortex pain a visit.

Many locations in Minnesota are running near average for snowfall so far this winter season. 

The Twin Cities is running very close to the seasonal average as we open March.

If the current mild March temperature and snowfall forecasts pan out, much of Minnesota may fall behind average during the month of March. 

Weather and Climate News

Updraft® - Minnesota Weather News

Paul Huttner

Author

Meteorological winter was milder than average overall, with near-average snowfall.

Minnesota DNR Climate Working Group

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/news/meteorological-versus-astronomical-seasons

NOAA

Huttner, Paul

Twin Cities National Weather Service

Midwest Regional Climate Center

Twin Cities season snowfall through February

Happy meteorological spring; winter stats update

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