February 2016 and Winter 2015-2016 St. Cloud Weather Summary

"Hot Town, Winter on the Prairie" (with apologies to the Lovin' Spoonful)

Mild February Finishes 8th Warmest Winter in St. Cloud Records

February 2016 and Winter 2015-2016 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 29 February). Astronomical winter ends on the spring equinox , which will be on March 19 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).

Mild February

Despite the coldest air in North America making one swoop over Minnesota and another shot just missing, February continued the mainly mild conditions seen throughout the winter. The average February temperature at the St. Cloud Regional Airport was 22.3°F, 5.3°F warmer than the February average. The warmest of the warm days was February 27, which set a new record for warmest February high temperature in St. Cloud history. The high of 59 degrees broke both the daily and the monthly high temperature record, both set on February 27, 1932. That was one of two February days that were at least 20 degrees milder than average and 12 days at least 10 degrees warmer than average. Only 8 out of the 29 February days were colder than average, with seven of those days in a row between February 8 and 14. This was the time that the coldest air in North America passed over Minnesota and Wisconsin on its way to southeastern Canada, the Northeast, and Mid-Atlantic states.

Despite persistent steering wind patterns from central and southern Canada into Minnesota and the Great Lakes, most of February was spent under the influence of milder air being pulled down the eastern slope of the Rockies.

8th Warmest Winter

The mild February, combined with a mild January and the 6th warmest December on record, pushed the St. Cloud winter (December 1-February 29) temperature to 20.9°F, 6.1°F above average and the 8th mildest winter in St. Cloud records. Many of the 20 mildest winters in St. Cloud records (9 out of the 23) have occurred since 1997, including 2001-2002 and 2011-2012, which are tied for the warmest winters on record.

February continued the trend of frequent, but light snow events. There were 8 days with measurable snowfall in February, bringing the total for the winter to 26 days. However, only 9 of these days have produced an inch, and 4 days of these days with at least 2 inches. Two of the 4 days took place in February with a very fluffy 2.0 inches on February 2 and an even fluffier 2.2 inches on February 11. The snow-to-liquid ratio on February 11 was more than 70-to-1, much more typical of a lake effect snow than one from a typical storm.

The total February snowfall was 7.2 inches, right at the average. The seasonal snowfall through the end of February was 25.7 inches, 10.2 inches below average.

St. Cloud managed to dodge the biggest snowstorm of the month and one of the biggest ones of the winter on February 2 and 3. The Twin Cities had a direct hit from the storm, that produced widespread snow accumulation of 8-12 inches, paralyzing travel for most of the afternoon on Feb. 2. However, the sharp northern edge to the storm produced only a couple of hours of light to moderate snowfall in St. Cloud, where only 2.2 inches accumulated.

The main storms experienced during February was the blizzard in southern and western Minnesota on February 7-8. Less than an inch of new snow fell, but wind gusts were 50 MPH and higher, causing severe travel problems in southern and southwestern Minnesota.

The February melted precipitation was 0.63 inches, just a few hundredths less than average. More than half of it (0.33 inch) fell as pure rain on February 19. For the most part, the continued northwest steering winds kept large amounts of moisture from getting involved in St. Cloud area storms, leaving us with typical light precipitation for February. The winter total equivalent precipitation has been 1.96 inches, within 0.2 inch of average.

The persistent warmth in the second half of the month produced high temperatures below freezing on only 3 of the final 15 days of the month.

February 2016 Statistics

Winter (Dec 1-Feb 29) 2015-2016 Statistics

St. Cloud Mildest Extreme Low of the Cold Season