Unusual Valentine's Day storm set records; winter strikes back

Our rare Valentine’s Day storm set records for precipitation and warmth.

The Twin Cities smashed the daily precipitation record for Feb. 14 by more than doubling the previous record. We picked up 68 one-hundredths (.68) of an inch of precipitation Tuesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The previous record was 43 one-hundredths of an inch (.43) set in 1950.

What’s really notable here is that the previous record was the liquid equivalent of the snow that fell on Valentine’s Day in 1950. Tuesday’s system was all rain. That’s highly unusual for February in Minnesota.

Here are some select precipitation totals from our region, in inches:

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Coon Rapids, Twin Cities area, 1.24
Grand Marais, Arrowhead region, 1.14
Duluth area, 1.12
Austin, southern Minnesota, 1.11
Lake City, southeastern Minnesota, .98
Rochester, .78

We also set a record for the record high minimum temperature in the Twin Cities Tuesday. The minimum temperature during the 24-hour period Tuesday was 35 degrees. That breaks the previous record of 33 degrees set in 2002.

Temperature record Tuesday
Twin Cities National Weather Service office

Wind gusts

Blizzard conditions escalated quickly overnight across western Minnesota. Winds gusted over 60 mph in some locations. here are some select wind gust reports.