January 2008 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Plenty of Snow on The Ground; Not Much in the Air

7th Lowest January Snowfall in Saint Cloud Records

While St. Cloud spent the entire January under snow cover, there was very little snow added to the snow pack. At the St. Cloud Reformatory, the January 2008 total snowfall was 1.8 inches, 8.7 inches below normal. So, January 2008 had the 7th lowest January snowfall of the 108 Januaries in St. Cloud records. The lack of snow since the first week of December (4.8 inches; normal 17.8 inches since December 6) has pushed the season snowfall to 16.2 inches, 12.6 inches below normal.

Still, St. Cloud has had constant snow cover since those two snowstorms in early December (61 straight days). While having continuous snow cover in December and January isn't that unusual in central Minnesota, it is unusual during our streak of mild winters. In the past 7 winters, there have been only 2 winters (2000-2001 and 2005-2006) which have had longer streaks of continuous snow cover.

The lack of snowfall extended to the lack of melted precipitation. Only 0.17 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation fell in January 2008, 0.59 inch below normal. Thus, January 2008 tied for the 10th driest January out of 115 years in St. Cloud records. Ironically, January 2007 was drier with only 0.16 inch falling. There was only one day (January 10) in which the light snow contained enough moisture to amount to at least .01 inch. That's the least number of January days with measurable precipitation since 1942. Despite that, the 6 inches of snow pack in St. Cloud still contains 1.6 inches of water, waiting for a thaw to be released.

It may have felt horribly cold in St. Cloud in January 2008, but temperatures were actually within a degree of normal. The average January temperature was 9.3°F, 0.5°F warmer than normal. However, this temperature was colder than 7 of the past 8 Januaries, reflecting how mild our recent winters have been. In contrast, only three of Januaries in the 1990's had milder temperatures than this month.

There were 2 days with a high of 0°F or colder in January; in the previous two winters, there were only two days with a high no higher than 0. There were three mornings with a low of at least -20°F in January, more than we've had in the previous two winters combined. The coldest low so far was -24°F on January, the coldest low temperature since -28°F on January 17, 2005 (that was the last of 4 straight days without reaching a temperature above zero). Saint Cloud still hasn't hit -30°F since: January 30, 2004. St. Cloud hasn't had a high of 10°F or colder since January 29, 2004 and hasn't had a low of at least -40°F since February 2, 1996 (date of state record low: -60°F in Tower).