January 2016 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

January 2016 St. Cloud Weather Summary

While December 2015 got winter off to an incredibly balmy start, colder temperatures did appear, at least for a while, in January 2016. Still, the overall statistics from the St. Cloud Regional Airport showed that January 2016 averaged 13.9°F, 2.3°F milder than the average.

There were two really cold blasts, one from January 8 through January 12, and the other during January 16-19. Highs were generally in the single digits above zero, with two days (January 10 and 17) having highs colder than zero. The "milder" of the two days on January 10, set a record for the coldest Vikings game on record and the third coldest National Football League game with a kickoff temperature of -6.

The average number of sub-zero highs in a season is 4 days. These included January The temperature was colder than average on 9 days in January and more than 10 degrees colder than average on 8 days. In November and December combined, St. Cloud only had 8 days with a daily average temperature below normal. None of those days averaged 10 degrees colder than normal.

There were 9 days with a low of zero degrees or colder, but that makes only 10 for the winter so far (average through January is 27 days). The temperature still hasn't been colder than -18 degrees, reached twice on January 11 and 17.

On the other hand, January featured 11 days with temperatures at least 10 degrees warmer than average. No temperature records were broken, but the high topped freezing on 7 days with 40-degree highs on January 27 and 31.

Light snow was fairly frequent, but with the emphasis on light. St. Cloud had 11 days (average 8.7 days) with measurable snowfall in January. However, the snowfall on 9 of those days was less than an inch and the most on any one day was 1.2 inch on January 25. Part of the reason was the cold surges. That cold air carried very little moisture as long as the air was coming from central Canada. Also, there were a couple of cases of storms developing near the Gulf of Mexico and moving northward, but those typically missed central Minnesota.

One storm notable for its high impact, but only over a narrow part of northwestern Minnesota into Fargo-Moorhead. To the north and west of Fargo as much as 12-18 inches of snow fell, but areas more than 20 miles away received nearly no snow at all.

And, we also missed the monster January 22-23 snowstorm that caused huge problems from Kentucky and Tennessee through the Carolinas and from Washington to New York City. Minnesota got nothing from that storm.

Winter Not Over Yet

The start of February was marked by a major southern Minnesota blizzard that also paralyzed the Twin Cities with 9-13 inches of snow. This system refreshed St. Cloud's snow cover. During this time, the really cold air in northern North America has reloaded. Long-range forecasts show at least part of that cold air core moving into Minnesota and the Plains states early next week. Considering that temperatures in that air mass in Canada aren't much colder than the minus 20's, it won't be anything like the cold snap 20 years ago. On February 2, 1996, Tower, MN hit -60, the coldest recorded temperature in Minnesota records. St. Cloud had a high of -20 and a low of -40, making it the coldest day since 1900. It was part of a streak of 6 days, all of which had lows of -30 or colder. 5 of those lows are still records.