December 2020 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Warmer than Average 2020 Finishes With Roller Coaster Fall

Annual 2020 St. Cloud Weather Summary

While the year 2020 was tumultuous, the weather in Minnesota was generally benign, especially in comparison to recent years. All weather parameters were closer to average than they had been in 2019. The annual average temperature at the St. Cloud Municipal Airport was 44.0 degrees, 1.1 degrees warmer than average. The warmer than average conditions contained a warmer than average summer (by 2.5 degrees), which had more warmth than several years since the 2008-2012 period. There were 10 days that reached at least 90 degrees, typical of 2010 and 2011. This period included a high of 96 degrees on June 8, only the second day since 2011 with a high of 96 degrees or warmer. This year also produced 2 lows of at least 70 degrees. Since 2013, only 2018 has had more than 2 days that warm and sticky. The South and West Coast were dominated by very hot summers that lasted into the fall. St. Cloud only occasionally got into those hot regimes, but did see a large area of smoke blow in from the western forest fires.

However, the oddest temperature portion of 2020 was the roller coaster temperatures during the fall. While the fall average temperature ended up only half a degree away from average, fall featured extreme cold periods in September, October, and November, and relative heat waves, especially in November. A cold spell in the first half of September ended up producing the first frost in several places with record low temperatures across three days in St. Cloud. That early frost on September 10 kept the growing season to only 119 days, 18 days fewer than average.

An even colder period set in during the second half of October. The cold outbreak produced one of the strongest early season snowstorms in Minnesota history, followed by a period of record cold temperatures, including highs colder than freezing and lows as cold as the teens. The entire month of October ended up being St. Cloud's 5th coldest October on record and the snowiest October on record.

The continued warmth in the South and West blew into Minnesota in early November, producing one of Minnesota's warmest November periods. In St. Cloud, the warm period produced 9 record warm temperatures between November 3 and 8, including a new record high (76) for the entire month of November on the 6th and a new record warm average (64) for the entire month on the 8th. However, much colder weather came in behind a major November 10 snowstorm (7.2 inches, the largest snowstorm of the year). The cooler readings that came in with the snow knocked November's average temperature to only rank as the 15th mildest on record.

The constant wild swings of temperatures during the fall only produced 31 of the 91 days that were within 5 degrees of the daily average temperature.

December continued the November overall trend of milder than average conditions. The average St. Cloud temperature was 21.9 degrees, 6.0 degrees warmer than average. Unfortunately, the mild weather was the miserable side of mild. Conditions were often cloudy with long periods of dense fog.

Near Average Precipitation, Often in Short Brief Bursts

The precipitation of 2020 was spotty. St. Cloud ended up with 26.74 inches, 0.97 inches below average. However, the precipitation came in fits and starts. The snowfall tapered off from late 2019 into early 2020. The period between February and May finally allowed the ground to dry out from the record wet 2019. And, the precipitation of that period was dominated by spotty heavy precipitation periods. More than 70 percent of the precipitation fell in a two-day period of each month between March and May. St. Cloud got a glancing blow from several of these events that produced far more precipitation elsewhere. The heavy area precipitation event was the June 29-30 Heavy Rainfall in Little Falls and Pierz which produced 5-8 inches of rain in parts of Lincoln, Morrison, and Wadena counties.

More rainfall did occur during July and August in St. Cloud. The heaviest precipitation was on August 14, when 3.09 inches fell in St. Cloud. This storm also included a number of tornadoes in southern Minnesota and large hail as storms redevelop in the afternoon (see August 14 Tornado and Hail Outbreak). The storms that affected parts of Minnesota included the first EF-4 tornado in Minnesota since 2010

Across Minnesota, the rainfall was far less in western and northeastern Minnesota. At times, these parts of Minnesota had short-term drought conditions, but the drier conditions overall helped to improve the growing conditions for much of the crops.

After huge amounts of recent snowfall, the 2020 total snowfall was 44.8 inches, 1.3 inches short of average. The heaviest snow months were January, October, and November with significantly less than average snowfall in February, March, and April. St. Cloud did however just miss a southern Minnesota major snowstorm on Easter Sunday.

In December, the precipitation was relatively light with only 0.53 inch of melted precipitation, 0.29 inch below average. Only 7.5 inches of snow fell during the month, 3.0 inches below average. Nearly no snow fell until the December 23 blizzard, causing the usual period of constant snow cover to begin very late in the month.