St. Cloud, MN Weather Forecast

Disgusting Weather Still What Much of Minnesota Needed

I hear you. My in-box of complaints on the start of April weather filled nearly all of my available cloud space. It was another episode during which Janet, my wife, got the treatment that was never covered in the marriage vows. "Tell your husband to send better weather"...."Get your husband to warm things up"..."Ask your husband when we will finally have spring."

The table of misery shows that St. Cloud picked up 3.0 inches of snow last Thursday through Saturday (and a couple of coatings of ice), pushing the cold season snowfall total to 41.3 inches, breaking the 40-inch mark for the first time in 3 years. Still, we didn't see the huge snowfall totals from the eastern Dakotas into Fargo-Moorhead and Bemidji (8-14 inches as shown on the NWS Grand Forks storm total snowfall map; set number of hours to 72). 

However, this snow (after it melts) and the cold rain and thunderstorms was the start of what Minnesota needs to make up for the large rainfall shortage from late last summer through the fall (St. Cloud had its 10th driest August-November last year). Last week's US Drought Monitor showed northern and southwestern Minnesota in the severe drought category. However, since Thursday, the frozen and liquid precipitation produced at least half an inch in much of west central and southwestern Minnesota (light green when you set the NWS Water Prediction Service observed precipitation map to yesterday's date and the last 4 days time period) with more than inch over the rest of the state. Especially important was the inch and a half to 2 inches of water locked up in the snow to our northwest. Even the snow will melt rapidly this time of year and begin to seep into the ground now that the frost level is in the process of disappearing in central and northern Minnesota.

Drier This Week With April Average Temperatures to Return by Wednesday....

Yesterday began what will be a series of drier days that will last this work week. And, we will finally return to at least April temperatures by the middle of the work week with an eventual return of the very warm temperatures we had at times in March (two days with a high warmer than 70 degrees). 

Today and tomorrow will still be on the chilly side of average (now a high of 50 degrees and a low of 30 degrees) with today's high falling back to the middle 30's. We will begin the day with some leftover low clouds (see College of DuPage North America clean infrared satellite loop) and perhaps a leftover stray snow flurry early this morning (see College of DuPage north central US radar loop) and a strong northwest wind will put a bit of a bite in the air. Still, most of today will be sunny.

The winds will calm tonight, and the drier air in the southern Canadian Prairie Provinces (dew points in the teens on the NWS Aviation Weather Center METAR map) so lows could drop into the teens. Tomorrow, clouds will be on the increase as much milder air tries to move out the leftover cold air. Temperatures will top off within a few degrees of 40, and there will be a chance for a sprinkle late in the day.

We will get warmer at the ground for the rest of the week, but there will be a chance for either some rain or freezing rain sprinkles Tuesday night as temperatures hover around freezing. It looks like southern and parts of central Minnesota will have a brief period when the warmer air reaches the ground the second half of Wednesday, so highs will return to the 50's and perhaps get to 60.

That warm air will temporarily get swept out of central Minnesota Wednesday night and Thursday, so highs will return to the 40's. Friday should have a return to at least average highs in the 50's.

Back to Warmth by the Weekend (Chances for Showers and Thunderstorms?)

The weekend has both potential warmth (highs in the 60's or even higher), depending on how many clouds and showers and thunderstorms are around. It appears that Saturday may have a few scattered showers (see Days 4-5 of the NWS WPC quantitative precipitation forecast), so there would be the potential for 70's again. The rain chance on Sunday is a bit more uncertain (see Days 6-7 of the NWS WPC quantitative precipitation forecast), but there will again be the potential for highs in the 60's and 70's. Again, the ground has a bigger need for the rain, although many of my critics need the warmth almost as well.

February-March 7th Warmest in St. Cloud Records

Because of the computer issues I had last week, I haven't been able to finish the March St. Cloud weather summary. However, I have found that the up-and-down temperatures produced a March averaging more than 5 degrees above normal. The average of February and March combined ended up as St. Cloud's 7th warmest Feb-March average of the 143 Feb-March periods on record.