February 201 and Winter 2013-2014 St. Cloud Weather Summary

"Little Darling, It's Been A Long Cold Lonely Winter" - George Harrison

February 2014 and Winter 2013-2014 Saint Cloud, MN, Weather Summary

Note: This is a summary of meteorological winter, which is defined as the three coldest months of the year (1 December through 28 February). Astronomical winter ends on the spring equinox, which will be on March 20 this year. That's the day when we get back to 12 hours of daylight. Also, note that the cold season can be used to refer to the part of the year when Minnesota can get snow (typically Oct-Apr, but can be longer) or the heating season (July 1-June 30).

The seemingly endless winter of 2013-2014 continued with very few breaks in February 2014. There were still very few records set for the cold, but the parade of reinforcing arctic cold fronts did accumulate enough cold records to push close to some milestones.

The average temperature of February 2014 in St. Cloud was 5.5°F, 11.5°F colder than average. That ranks as the 9th coldest February in St. Cloud records. That means that the winter of 2013-2014 (Dec.-Feb.) will have two months that ranked in the top 10 in coldest temperature (December 7th coldest). Despite that, the three winter months had an average temperature of 5.5°F, 9.3°F colder than average and tied for the 5th coldest winter in St. Cloud records. Regardless, this will be the coldest meteorological winter since 1978-1979.

There were only 4 record cold temperatures: the record cold high of -15 on January 4 and the February 25 high of 4, the record tying February 27 low of -20, and the record tying February 27 average temperature of -10.

However, the relentless accumulation of days below zero, lows below zero have produced the following:

Cold Extremes

• 6th coldest winter (Dec-Feb): 5.7°F, avg 14.8°F, coldest since 1978-1979.
• 60 days with a low of zero or colder; 11th highest total, most since 1978-1979 (69 days)
• 14 days without the temperature climbing above zero (second-most), as many as the past 6 winters combined
• 14 days with a low of -20 or colder, tied for 6th all-time, most since 1995-1996.
• 17 straight days with a low of zero or colder (January 25th through Feb. 11th) 13th longest streak of consecutive below zero days; longest since 1996.

Not only has the winter been endless in terms of cold; it has also been a season with large snowfall totals, although we began with a series of small snowfalls. February actually had the fewest days (8) with measurable snow of the winter months. Still, we ended up with 13.5 niches of snow, 6.3 inches above average. This brings the cold season snowfall (since the start of October) to 54.3 inches. That's 19.2 inches greater than the average through February (35.1 inches) and the 3rd highest snowfall total through Feb. Only 1936-1937 and 1968-1969 had more snow.

For the winter months (Dec., Jan, Feb), St. Cloud had the 3rd snowiest meteorological winter with 50.6 inches, nearly double the 25.5 inch average. Again, 1936-1937 and 1968-1969 are the only two winters to top this winter's total.

The primary cause of the huge snowfall has been the large number of snow days. Through the end of February, there have been 42 days with measurable snowfall. This is tied for the most days through February with the winters of 1935-1936, 1968-1969, and 1978-1979.

Snow Extremes:

• 25 inches of snow on the ground on February 21. Most since February 25-26, 2001. Need 30 inches to break into top 10.
• 4 days with record snowfall: December 4 (5.0 inches), January 18 (5.7 inches), February 17 (4.3 inches) and February 20 (7.6 inches)

The worst of these storms was the February 20-21 snowstorm. There were 12-18 inches of snow in north central Wisconsin, the Arrowhead, and St. Louis County with 6-10 inches along I-35 from Duluth through the Twin Cities into southern Minnesota and also to the west to I-94 between the Twin Cities and St. Cloud. However, the biggest problem was that the initial snow fell with the temperatures at or above freezing in much of central and southern Minnesota. When, the temperatures plunged during the last third of the snowstorm, a layer of ice formed under the snow. Since temperatures quickly fell to the single digits, no road treatment could aid the ice melting. Take that and winds up to 50 MPH blowing the new snow back over roads and driving quickly became a nightmare. There were over 5,000 accidents reported by the Minnesota State Police.

And all of that snow has so much liquid inside of it that this winter is the 5th wettest winter (Dec.-Feb.) on record with 4.18 inches, nearly double average (2.18 inches).

So far, that huge water content isn't leading to large worries about when the snow melts. The National Weather Service's River Forecast Center lists about an average chance of minor flooding at Brainerd and Long Prairie with a better chance at Atkin. However, the main threat of minor to moderate flooding would be along the Red River and along the Mississippi along the Illinois-Iowa border.

It hasn't been cold everywhere this winter. You can get an estimate of the "winners" and "losers" this winter on the two-week loop of surface temperatures from Penn State's e-wall. On the right hand panel are the estimated temperatures every 6 hours with the purple being the single digits above zero. So, near or below zero temperatures have dominated all of Russia and Siberia, Mongolia at times, Alaska (more frequently the past two weeks than a lot of the winter), Canada, and at times, the North Central US. That's because, a week ago, we had one of our few breaks between cold outbreaks.

The left-hand loop shows the departures from average. So, the winters have been Alaska, western and central Europe, and the southwestern US. The losers have mostly been Siberia, Mongolia, interior Canada and the US east of the Rockies.

There is promised relief after Tuesday of next week, but many long-range forecast mild breaks have fizzled.

February 2014 Statistics

Winter (Dec 1-Feb 28) 2013-2014 Statistics

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All climate data provided courtesy of NOAA/NWS

and Minnesota Climatology Working Group, including the Minnesota State Climatologist's Office, University of Minnesota-Saint Paul Campus.

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