February 2007 and Winter 2006-2007 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Yes, there can be snow during a winter in St. Cloud. It took until the last week of February, but the ground is finally covered with white. The total snowfall in February 2007 at the Saint Cloud Reformatory was 13.6 inches, 7.1 inches above normal. This made February 2007 the snowiest month since December 2005 and the snowiest February since February 2001. Overall, February 2007 tied February 1979 as the 16th snowiest February in St. Cloud records.

February 2007 would have ranked even higher, but ran out of days to contain the two heavy snowstorms in less than a week. The snowstorm of February 23-26 produced 11.0 inches at the Reformatory (12.2 inches at SCSU), but only 0.5 inches of the 7.6 inches (9.6 inches total at SCSU) in the snowstorm of February 28-March 2 fell during the month of February. In central Minnesota, Hewitt (Todd County) had most snow from the first storm with 17.5 inches, New London had 17.0 inches, an observer 10 miles north of Mora 16.5 inches, Carlos (Douglas County) and Hutchinson 15.5 inches, Browerville 15.0 inches, Little Falls 14.2 inches, an observer 7 miles west-northwest of Onamia and Mora 13.5 inches, Granite Falls 13.5 inches, Cambridge, Gilman, and east St. Cloud 13.0 inches. The Saint Cloud reformatory set a daily snowfall record with 7.6 inches on February 24, 2007. However, the record February daily snowfall is still February 28, 1951 when 12.0 inches fell.

So, a mere week after talking about one of the St. Cloud's 10 brownest cold seasons, we are buried. Between October 1, 2006, and February 23, 2007, the St. Cloud Reformatory had only accumulated 6.8 inches of snow, nearly 28 inches behind the normal seasonal snowfall of 34.5 inches. There hadn't been a snowstorm that produced even two inches of snow since December 29-30, 2005 when 5.6 inches of snow fell. In addition, there had only been a total of 20.5 inches between January 1, 2006, and February 23, 2007 produced 50% of the snow we'd accumulated over the previous 13 months.

Tacking on the snowfall from the February 28-March 2, the official St. Cloud snowfall had climbed to 25.4 inches, despite the St. Cloud Reformatory posting one of the lowest snowfall totals in the area (7.6 inches; SCSU had 9.6 inches; east St. Cloud had 9.8 inches, and an observer 8 miles west of St. Cloud had 10.0 inches). So, at the Saint Cloud Reformatory, a total of 18.6 inches fell from the two storms (21.8 inches total at SCSU). To put this in perspective, we hadn't had a month with as much snow as we've had in the past week since March 2002, which featured the 17.5 inch snowstorm in the St. Cloud area.

The two combined snowstorms produced 18.6 inches at the Saint Cloud Reformatory (21.8 inches at SCSU). In a normal December-February, 26.0 inches of snow falls, so the snow last week accounted for 72% of the normal winter snowfall for the entire winter season.And, there are several places that have amassed more than 2 feet of snow from the two storms combined. (Hutchinson 34 inches, Hewitt 32 inches, Cambridge 31 inches, Mora 28.3 inches, New London and 2 miles north of Sauk Center 29 inches, Buffalo 28 inches, Granite Falls 27.1 inches, New London 26.2 inches).

The storm of February 23-26 produced a large amount of sleet and heavy wet snow with a high water content. That pushed the February 2007 melted precipitation total in Saint Cloud to 1.42 inches, 0.83 inch above normal. So, February 2006 tied February 1948 for the 11th wettest February in Saint Cloud records. Two previous years in this decade, February 2002 (4th) and February 2001 (10th) rank among the 10 wettest Februaries. The wet snow (1.00 inches) ended up producing only the third February day in St. Cloud weather records with at least an inch of melted precipitation. The other two were February 28, 1951 (1.81 inches in that 12.0 inches of snow) and February 26, 1931 (1.20 inches). Between the two storms, 1.70 inches of melted precipitation fell. In a normal December-February, 2.18 inches falls, so the melted precipitation during last week accounted for 78% of the normal precipitation for the entire winter season.

The total winter precipitation was 3.11 inches, nearly an inch above normal. Winter 2006-2007 came within a quarter inch of cracking the ten wettest winters, finishing as the 18th wettest in St. Cloud history. Nearly all of the precipitation fell during the last four days of December (1.31 inch) and the last five days of February (1.28 inch). The total between the two ends of the month (2.59 inches) was more than 83% of the precipitation for the entire winter.

Temperature-wise, February 2007 in Saint Cloud was a tale of two months. The cold spell that began on January 27 continued through February 16. The average February temperature during the first 16 days of this month was 1.4°F. That was 12.8°F below normal. The first 16 days of February featured two below zero highs for the first time since January 14-17, 2005 and 14 lows below zero (of the 25 days this cold season), including a low of -22°F on February 5. That was the first low of at least -20°F since January 17, 2005. If this had stood up for the whole month, February 2007 would rank as the second coldest February in Saint Cloud records. However, during the last 12 days of the month, milder weather moved in. The average temperature for February 17-28 was 25.8°F. There were three days with highs in the 40's and 5 days with a low of at least 20 degrees. Sum it up and the February 2007 average temperature was 10.7°F, 5.3°F colder than normal. That only ranks as tied for the 39th coldest February out of 127 years of temperature records.

The colder than normal February did cost the winter of 2006-2007 the opportunity to rank among the 10 coldest winters in St. Cloud history. An average February would have put winter 2006-2007 (November 1-February 28) into 10th place. Instead, the average temperature of 17.8°F tied with 3 other years for the 18th warmest winter in St. Cloud records. Note that seven of the top 22 mildest years have happened in this spell of warm winters since 1990. The 25 days with a low of at least 0°F ranks as the 12th lowest total of below zero days (normal is 42.9 days) in St. Cloud records. We will have a shot at another below zero low this week, so we'll see if that stands up. Also, St. Cloud ran off a streak of 35 consecutive days of above normal temperatures (12th longest in records).

The snow really helped the low moisture situation, especially in the northern third of the state. As mentioned several times earlier, the ground is frozen, so the snow will melt and run-off without making it into the ground. However, this new snow will work wonders for the low streamflow in the Upper Mississippi, Red, Saint Croix, and in the Lake Superior drainage basins. The new snow cover map from the NOHRSC analysis shows the widespread coverage of at least 10 inches of snow with several spots of at least 20 inches of snow. This snow is so new that the latest summary on the drought situation from the Minnesota State Climatology Office was before both storms. The update on the conditions through February 27 (between the two snowstorms) is available from the National Drought Mitigation Center.