May 1999 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

May 1999 was a warm and wet month, according to the statistics
from the St. Cloud Airport. The average temperature of 58.3 degrees
was nearly 2 1/2 degrees above normal. While it did not reach the
extraordinary warmth of last year (avg temp of 62.1 degrees, 7th warmest
May on record), May 1999 was the third warmest May of the 1990's. Despite
the Memorial Day weekend of 1999 having three days with a high temperature
above 85 degrees, it still pales compared to the 3 days with highs above 90
degrees which happened in the middle of May during last year.

The warm temperatures came after a rainy first half of the month.
The total rainfall for May was 4.72 inches, which was more than an inch and
a half above normal. All but .07 inches fell in the first 15 days of the
month. Two days (the 10th and 12th) recorded more than an inch of rain.
The 1.31 inch on the 12th broke a record for rainfall on May 12 and was
the highest single day rainfall total since July 14, 1998 (1.62 inch).
The last month containing two days with at least an inch of rainfall
was August 1997.

The high rainfall total in May marked the rainiest May since 1993,
the year of the severe flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi
Rivers, mostly from southern Minnesota to Missouri and Illinois. The May
1999 rainfall was the third highest rainfall total in the past 20 years.
The combination of the heavy rain early in the month and warm weather
late in the month has pushed the growing season into overdrive.

For the spring season (March 1-May 31), St. Cloud reached an average
temperature of 45.3 degrees, which was 3 degrees above normal, but not
as warm as the extremely warm spring of 1998 (47.0 degrees, 7th warmest on
record). The heavy May rains pushed the spring precipitation total to
about an inch above normal.

MAY 1999 STATISTICS            MAY 1999        NORMAL
TEMPERATURE
Average High                     69.3           68.4
Average Low                      47.2           43.4
Average Temp                     58.3           55.9
Warmest high temperature         88 on the 29th 
Coldest high temperature         50 on the 12th 
Mildest low temperature          61 on the 4th 
Coldest low temperature          33 on the 9th

RAINFALL (in)                    4.72           3.16
Most in 24 hours                 1.31 on the 12th (record; see below)

RECORDS SET: 
Daily maximum rainfall:         1.31 in on the 12th (old record: .87 in 1983)

SPRING STATISTICS              SPRING 1999     NORMAL
Average Temperature              45.3           42.3
Total Melted Precip(in)          7.95           6.92