December 2012 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud Weather Summary for December 2012 and Annual Weather Summary for 2012

    December 2012 Statistics

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Second Warmest Calendar Year in St. Cloud Records
2012 Annual Saint Cloud Weather Summary

2012 Temperatures Full Of Records

2012 ended up being the second warmest calendar year since St. Cloud temperature records began in 1881. The 2012 average temperature was 47.1°F, 4.2°F warmer than normal. The only year that was warmer was 1931 with an average temperature of 47.9°F. The average high temperature of 58.2°F was 5.2°F warmer than normal and set a record for the warmest average high temperature. The old record was 58.0°F in 1987.

Most of the warmer than average temperatures took place during the first seven months of the year. In fact, the heating season (July 1-June 30) of 2011-2012 was the warmest by far in St. Cloud records. It included the warmest winter in St. Cloud records last winter and St. Cloud's warmest spring on record, fueled mainly by an incredibly warm March. The summer was heated by the 6th warmest July on record and the hottest July since since 1936. This July ended being the hottest on record in Duluth and the second hottest in the Twin Cities.

However, August 2012 was the first average temperature month since May 2011 and it was followed by a colder than normal October 2012. However, both November and December were warmer than average, although not nearly as warm as the year before.

Still, the very warm year set a number of records. The high of 53 degrees on January 3 was the earliest 50-degree high ever recorded in St. Cloud. The 69 degree average temperature on March 19 was the warmest average temperature ever set in March. On the previous day, the low temperature of 61 was the warmest low temperature set in March. That was just part of 43 daily record warm temperatures broken or tied (16 daily highs; 17 daily averages; 10 daily lows). 24 of these records were set in March. The winter of 2011-2012 had the fewest days with a low of 0 or colder (10 days), beating 1907-1908 by one day. The coldest day of the winter was -17°F, marking only the fourth year that St. Cloud never had a temperature colder than -20°F.

St. Cloud also had the fewest days with a low of freezing or colder (151 days) and the fewest days with a high of freezing or colder (49 days).

On July 4, St. Cloud recorded its 54th day in St. Cloud records with low of 75°F or warmer. The high temperature for the year reached 99°F on July 16, not reaching 100 degrees as was done in June 2011. The 17 days with a high of at least 90 degrees was the most since both 2006 and 2007. Four of the past 6 summers have been warmer than average, but the summers of 1988 and several years earlier than 1940 had warmer summers.

2012 Precipitation

The big Minnesota weather news in 2012 was the share of the extreme dry conditions that dominated the Plains. While the overall 2012 precipitation of 25.01 inches was 2.70 inches below average, the June-October rain shortfall was over 9 inches (8.14 inches actual, 17.22 inches average). The June-November precipitation of 9.32 inches was the lowest total in St. Cloud records. The only aspect that kept St. Cloud from being much lower in precipitation was the second wettest May. The leftover ground moisture from the rainy spring allowed many Minnesota farmers to salvage a decent 2012 crop during a period of elevated prices due to the complete crop losses further south.

The December snowfall will help out lake and river levels when the snow melts in the spring. However, ground water levels will need a lot of help from early season rains after the frost leaves the soil in the spring.

The extremely dry conditions had extreme drought across northwestern and southwestern, south central into central Minnesota with severe drought in the rest of the state, except for the Boundary Waters. This is all despite major flooding that occurred from Brainerd into northeastern Minnesota on June 19-20. Duluth had its heaviest rainfall on record (7.24 inches). Several communities from Duluth west and southwestward had major flooding and Jay Cooke State Park was closed for the second half of the summer.

Snow Drought Finishes 2011-2012, Snowy Start to 2012-2013

Snowfall during the calendar year of 2012 totaled 38.9 inches, 7.2 inches below average. The start of the year saw the relatively snowless 2011-2012 continue. Overall, St. Cloud picked up only 27.4 inches in the entire 2011-2012 season, a huge contrast from the 66.1 inches (8th snowiest season) seen in 2010-2011. The one major storm was the Leap Day Snowstorm that dropped a swath of double digit snowfall from Alexandria to Hinckley and into western Wisconsin. St. Cloud set a record for February 29 snowfall with 4.7 inches and a total of 7.8 inches from the two-day storm. The snow melted for good by March 12, so there were only 62 days with at least an inch of snow cover and only 32 straight days (a far cry from the 130 consecutive days seen in 2010-2011).

The snow season was off to a slow start in 2012 until the big storm that hit on December 8-10.

2012 Severe Weather

While there were several Minnesota tornadoes (37), 34 of the 37 were short-lived and relatively weak. There were no tornado-related injuries in Minnesota in 2012. Besides the northeastern flood and the drought noted above, probably the weather event with the most impact was the floods in southeastern Minnesota on June 14-15.

Nationally, the two major hurricane landfalls of Sandy in the Northeast on October 29 (more than 100 deaths, $50 billion in damage) and Isaac on August 29 in the New Orleans area (7 deaths, $1.5 billion) produced huge effects, although neither storm had incredible winds upon landfall. The other major national weather event, besides the drought, was the widespread derecho (straight line damaging wind event) on June 29. There were 22 deaths and millions of houses left without power in this wind damage event that stretched from Indiana to New Jersey and Washington, DC.