Meteorological spring report card
Recent wet weather was par for the course
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Monday’s stormy weather was in some ways indicative of our wet, stormy and cool spring.
Storms Monday brought not just severe weather but lots of rain
The National Weather Service is still sifting through the damage in west central Minnesota to determine how many tornadoes there were and their intensity as of early Tuesday evening. The storms were part of an unsettled weekend that brought more heavy rainfall.
Pockets of Minnesota saw more than 2 to 3 inches of rainfall over the holiday weekend. International Falls broke a daily record with 2.18 inches of rain on top of an already flooded Rainy Lake area.
Meteorological spring ‘report card’
It should come as no surprise that meteorological spring (which ends at the end of the day May 31) finishes cool and wet overall for Minnesota. In the Twin Cities we finished about 1.8 degrees (F) cooler than normal for March 1 to May 31. North-west Minnesota saw the biggest anomalies with some places nearly 4 degrees colder than normal. Parts of south-east and Minnesota saw nearly normal spring temperatures.
April was the coldest month for everyone but May was warmer than normal for most southern Minnesota. In the Twin Cities we were 1.7 degrees (F) above normal, nearly half a standard deviation. South-east Minnesota overall was milder while northeast Minnesota and north-west Minnesota was colder than normal by 1 or 2 degrees.
Spring precipitation was the big story too. While April was very snowy north, it as also very wet for many areas. Parts of north-east and north-west Minnesota saw double to triple normal precipitation. In the Twin Cities we saw about 1.5 times the normal.
The next 8 to 14 days and the first part of June overall does look to be slightly cooler than normal, picking up where spring left off.
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