February 1999 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Last year's "excuse" was El Nino, a pool of abnormally warm water in the tropical Pacific. This year's "excuse" was La Nina, a pool of abnormally cold water in the tropical Pacific. But, the net result for Saint Cloud was almost identical: an extraordinarily mild Februaryand an easy winter (December-February) in Saint Cloud.

February 1999 was another mild one. Temperatures averaged more than 10.5 degrees above normal, placing it as the 7th warmest in the 119 years on record. This would seem extraordinary, except that we just went through the warmest February of all time in 1998. This certainly makes the past two Februaries the warmest consecutive Februaries on record.

February 1999 had only one day of zero degrees or colder (on the 4th), ranking as the third lowest total on record. The only years with fewer are 1987 and last February which had none. Last winterset the record for fewest days with a low of zero or colder with 16. Thus far, the winter of 1998-99 has had only 29 days, tying this winter for 5th fewest number of days during the cold season. Outside of the11 consecutive days of sub-zero readings in January (longest streak in two years), we would approach last year's incredibly low totalof 14 days. The normal number of days with lows of 0 or colder in February is 12 and the normal number for the cold season is 47.

February 1999 was also nearly snowless, just like February 1998. Saint Cloud Airport only received 0.5 inch of snow during February 1999,tied for the 4th lowest total on record with 1964. (It should be mentioned that snowfall which was measurable, although less than an inch, did fall elsewhere in St. Cloud on a couple of other days in February, but did not reach a measurable amount at the airport). This was only 0.1 inch less than February 1998. However, we did not even get the rain that we received last year in February, so the total melted precipitation for February 1999 wasonly 0.07 inch, the 7th driest February on record and the driest since1964.

The statistics for the meteorological winter (Dec 1998-Feb 1999) also show a mild and relatively snowless winter. The mild December(more than 7 degrees above normal), the near normal January, and our mild February resulted in an average winter temperature of 6 degrees above normal. Again, this would seem extraordinary, but for last winter's nearly 11 degrees above normal, the 2nd mildest winter of all time.The 1998-99 seasonal snowfall, fueled mainly by the 18.4 inches in January, is only 25.1 inches, more than 8 inches below normal.

So what do all of these numbers really mean to us? We have had two extraordinarily mild winters back-to-back. It means that we have had basically 4 weeks plus two days of colder than normal weather since last September. We haven't had a low temperature colder than -25 sinceDecember 26, 1996.

We have had only 4 days with a high temperature below zero in the last two winters combined. We haven't had a single day snowfall of more than 3 inches this winter and only two days with more than 4 inches since January 1997. And, we have seen bare ground in February for the second straight year. This doesn't mean that there hasn't been major snowfalls nearby, like the storm which pounded Omaha and Des Moines a week ago or the deep snowpack which has led to warnings of the potential for moderate flooding in the Red River Valley from Grand Forks northward this spring. Still, for central Minnesota, we have gotten off quite easily two winters in a row.

TEMPERATURE

Average High                     33.2           24.8

Average Low                      16.8           3.8

Average Temp                     25.0+          14.3

Warmest high temperature         43 on the 8th

Coldest high temperature         10 on the 4th

Mildest low temperature          32 on the 10th,27th 

Coldest low temperature          -2 on the 4th

Record temperatures:             NONE

+7TH WARMEST ON RECORD (SEE TABLE BELOW)
      

MELTED PRECIP (in)               0.07*           0.63

Most in 24 hours                 0.05 on the 1st

*6TH LOWEST ON RECORD (SEE TABLE BELOW)

SNOWFALL (in)                    0.5**           7.0

Most in 24 hours                 0.5 on the 24th

Seasonal Snowfall (Oct-Feb)      25.1            33.3

**TIED FOR 4TH LOWEST ON RECORD (SEE TABLE        BELOW)

WINTER STATISTICS               WINTER 1998-9   NORMAL

Average High Temp                 27.6           22.1

Average Low Temp                   8.6            2.1

Average Temperature               18.1           12.1

Total Melted Precip(in)           1.80           2.20

Snowfall (in)                     21.7           26.0