July 2016 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Rainfall Hits Central Minnesota Target in July

July 2016 St. Cloud Weather Summary

9th Wettest July in St. Cloud Records

The dominant North American steering wind pattern has been a story of two air mass: oppressively hot air over the Southwest, Southern Plains and, at times, the Southeast and warm and drier air from the northern Canadian Prairie Provinces. The main storm track has been in between from British Columbia and Alberta into Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota and the Great Lakes. Despite frequent storms and severe weather nearby central Minnesota through June, the St. Cloud area had been running short of rainfall (7.28 inches April-June, -2.41 inches below average).

This turned around in July. St. Cloud was never the heaviest precipitation area in some localized downpours, but ended up with 6.74 inches in July, more than double the July average of 3.31 inches. It was still short of the heaviest July rainfall that concentrated between Brainerd and Mille Lacs Lake eastward to Mora, Aitkin, Isle, Moose Lake, and Hinckley, where 10-15 inches of rain fell in July. Other areas of heavy rain included the Park Rapids and Detroit Lakes area and Kandiyohi County north of Willmar. The largest chunk of this rainfall occurred July 11-12 with 7-9 inches of rain in Pine County. In St. Cloud, 3.64 inches of rain fell over the two days, the 11th highest single storm rainfall in St. Cloud weather records and the most in nearly 11 years. The daily rainfall total of 2.63 inches on July 11 broke the daily record rainfall of 1.53 inches, set in 1990.

The July 10-11 storm also produced a localized outbreak of 3 tornadoes just to the south of St. Cloud. One hit the northwestern portions of Litchfield with estimated top winds of 115 MPH, one tornado moved through Watkins with estimated top winds of 125 MPH, and the third tornado hit farm buildings in southern Stearns County north of Watkins and southwest of Pearl Lake. The wind estimate was 105 MPH as the storm hit mostly fields and farm buildings. There were also large hail and straight-line damaging winds from these storms.

There was a second heavy rainfall in St. Cloud on July 23 with 1.76 inches of rain.

Additional July storm outbreaks hit central and southern Minnesota, including southern Stearns and northern Wright Counties on July 5, produced heavy rain in southwestern Minnesota on July 16, produced damaging winds and hail in northwestern Minnesota on July 19-20, and damaging winds producing widespread power outages from the Walker to the Brainerd Lakes region and Little Falls and Royalton, as well as in northeastern Minnesota on July 21-22.

The total rainfall in St. Cloud for the growing season (April 1-July 31) is now 14.02 inches, 1.02 inches above the average rainfall. Areas to the east of St. Cloud have less rainfall and are near average for the season, but the swath of huge rainfall goes from Redwood Falls to the distant western suburbs of the Twin Cities and through Wright and Stearns County, then northward from Staples and Brainerd eastward to Pine County.

Near Average July Temperatures

Being along the major storm track kept St. Cloud from being too warm. The average July temperature was 70.4°F, within 0.1°F of the average. Conditions were very humid on average, so the average low temperature of 59.8°F was 0.7°F above average and the warmest of the past since 2012. However, the average high temperature of 81.0°F was the coolest since 2009. Again, the reason was the frequent presence of thunderstorms over or near St. Cloud. That led to many afternoon in the warm air with a lot of leftover clouds, keeping the hottest of the hot air out of St. Cloud. The St. Cloud Airport did break out into the stifling air on July 20 and 22, each of which broke 90 degrees. There have been 4 days with a high of at least 90 degrees so far this summer, as many as during the past two summers combined.

Despite the persistent humidity, the low temperature never stayed at 70 degrees or higher.

     July 2016 Statistics