July 2014 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Drying Out with Actual Average Temperatures

St. Cloud July 2014 Weather Summary

Drier July Allows Rivers and Lakes to Recede

For the first time since February, rainfall slowed down dramatically in St. Cloud. According to the statistics from the St. Cloud Regional Airport, the total rainfall in July was 1.25 inches, 2.06 inches less than the 1981-2010 average. That still leaves St. Cloud 6.93 inches above average for the April 1-July 31 growing season so far (20.07 inches actual, 13.10 inches average). That ranks as the 7th highest April-July rainfall in St. Cloud records. Since the start of the year, St. Cloud has picked up 23.78 inches, still 7.99 inches above average and the 5th rainiest year to date. The last time there was so much rain early in the year was in 1990. The most rainfall through the first 7 months of the year (31.78 inches) and for the April-July period (23.10 inches) was 1897.

There were only 8 days with measurable rainfall in July. While that's only one day less than the average (9.3 days), it's the fewest days with measurable precipitation since February. St. Cloud did miss on some heavy rains in northern Minnesota during a couple of periods. There was some heavy rainfall in northwestern Minnesota (2-4 inches) on July 10 and another bout of heavy rainfall in northern Minnesota on July 21-22. But, the drier readings in St. Cloud was consistent with smaller rain amounts in most of the southern half of Minnesota. After not having more than three straight dry days from April 11 through July 14, St. Cloud had 10 straight dry days between July 15 and July 24 and only one day with measurable rainfall in the last 17 days. This allowed much of Minnesota to catch up on good outdoor days.

This finally allowed the very high water levels in many Minnesota lakes to drop a bit. Much of the southern half of Minnesota saw lake levels drop enough to see many wake restrictions eased and to see streamflow drop back to normal (green) flow in much of the southern two-thirds of Minnesota with still some pockets of the top 25% in the Mississippi Basin between Brainerd and Minneapolis and in the Lower Minnesota River Basin from Redwood Falls to the Twin Cities. Note that most of central Minnesota was in the highest 10% of streamflow at the end of June. Riverflow is still very high around the Red Lakes, Cass Lake, Lake Winnibegoshish, and in the Detroit Lakes area.

Not Cool As You Might Think

Temperature-wise, July continued the impression of this "cool summer." That was mainly due to a cool outbreak around July 14-17. St. Cloud did set a record cold high of 65 degrees on the 14th and had three lows within a degree of 50. However, the 14th was the only day with a low cooler than 60 degrees (average for July) and there was only one low cooler than 50 degrees (less than the July average of 2.1 days). When you include June, St. Cloud has fewer than average of these cool temperatures and is not near a record.

The atmosphere finally addressed the lack of 90 degree highs through mid-July. Highs of 90 on the 20th and 94 on the 21st brought the number of July 90-degree highs to 2. This was the latest 90-degree high since 1993, when the first one was set on August 10. We still are far below the average number of 90 degree days (usually 11.4 days for the summer). Both 2008 (3 days) and 2009 (2 days) had similar numbers of 90-degree days.

Overall, the July temperature ended up being 70.2 degrees, just about average. The 81.7 degree average high was just short of a degree away from the average July high (82.3 degrees), so we have caught up substantially during the last half of July. The drier weather also allowed near average low temperature (58.7 degrees). Warm lows from humid air was mainly responsible for the warmer than average June. This July was the coolest July since 2009 and the second coolest of the past 10 years, so we have usually seen warmer Julys recently.

Note that St. Cloud still had a 72 degree low on July 21, the second low of at least 70 degrees this summer so far. These warm lows are far more rare (3 per summer) than 90 degree highs (11.4 per warm season).

The dry out came because the hot high in the western third of the US grew larger and pushed further to the north. This, at first, pushed the cool Canadian air mass into the eastern two-thirds of the country during the middle of the month. After that, the cold lows parked themselves over Quebec and Ontario, so the eastern third of the country stayed cool and wet, but the Northern Plains had mostly near average temperatures on the back side of the cool air. This Canadian air was dry enough to make it hard for any warm fronts to squeeze a lot of moisture out of any weather systems. Earlier in the spring and summer, the Northern Plains were mostly right on the boundary between the hot, humid air and the slightly cooler, but not so dry air, so there were frequent thunderstorms.

    July 2014 Statistics