Wednesday's unusually warm March rain storm set records in Minnesota

So much for the March state tournament snowstorm in the Twin Cities. This year it was rain.

Wednesday's unusually warm weather system produced mostly rain in the Twin Cities and southern Minnesota. While snowfall totals were impressive from western through northeast Minnesota, the Twin Cities and St. Cloud set new daily rainfall records.

• Twin Cities: MSP Airport: 0.69 inches (previous record 0.59 inches in 1878)

• St. Cloud: 0.72 inches (previous record 0.42 inches in 1904)

Many locations in Minnesota recorded over an inch of moisture with Wednesday’s storm. Here’s the observed precipitation map from the Twin Cities National Weather Service.

Heavy snowfall panned out from western Minnesota through the Arrowhead. Locations in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness picked up around a foot of heavy wet snow. The large yellow swath on the map below picked up 6 inches or more.

Wednesday’s storm also brought the second earliest tornado warnings on record issued by the Twin Cities NWS office. Only 2017 brought earlier tornado warnings on March 6 of that year.

Climate change connection

Wednesday’s unusually warm storm system is consistent with climate changes in Minnesota. The frequency of winter season rain in Minnesota has tripled in the past several decades as our warmer winter season climate creates weather systems warm enough for rain or ice instead of snow.