May and Spring 2024 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

May Marks 13th Straight Warm, 6th Straight Wet Month

May and Spring 2024 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

May 2024 in St. Cloud marked a continuation of the warm and wet pattern seen since the beginning of winter. The average May temperature at the St. Cloud Regional Airport was 60.2 degrees (72.5 avg high; 48.0 avg low), 4.0 degrees warmer than average. That made May 2024 the 20th mildest May among the 143 Mays in St. Cloud weather records. There were 23 high temperatures of at least 70 degrees in May, 8 more than the 15 day average. Nine of those days had a high of at least 75 and 3 exceeded 80 degrees, including the 88 degree high on May 17.

The temperature never got colder than 37 degrees, so the last frost in St. Cloud was on April 21, which is among the 10 percent of earliest last frost dates. The median date for St. Cloud's last frost is May 10. Many of the spring temperature thresholds were reached early, including a tie for the earliest 60-degree high and a new record for the earliest 70-degree high (see table below)

 In fact, this cold season produced 2 new records for the fewest days with temperatures colder than freezing. There were 43 days with a high less than or equal to freezing. The old record was 49 days in 2011-2012. There were 140 days with a low less than or equal to freezing, beating the old record of 143 days, set in 2015-2016.

8th Warmest Spring, 3rd Mildest Start to Year

The warmer than average May contributed to a very warm meteorological spring. The average St. Cloud spring temperature was 47.2 degrees (58.4 avg high, 36.4 avg low), 4.3 degrees milder than average. That made Spring 2024 St. Cloud's 8th warmest spring on record. Note that four of the 10 warmest springs have occurred in the past 18 years (2012 warmest at 50.6 degrees; 2010 5th warmest at 48.6 degrees, 2006 9th warmest, 47.1 degrees). May also was the 13th consecutive warmer than average month in St. Cloud. 12 of those 13 months were at least 2.9 degrees warmer than average. So far in 2024, St. Cloud has an average temperature of 38.3 degrees, the third mildest January through May in St. Cloud records (see table below).

 Heavy Rain in Second Half of May Produces 4th Wettest Dec-May

May got off to a relatively slow start in rainfall with only 0.81 inch in May through the 19th. However, a major change to a wetter weather pattern produced nearly four and a half inches over the past 30 days, with nearly 4 inches since May 26 (see 30-day graph of St. Cloud accumulated rainfall, scale at right, from MesoWest). That pushed the May rainfall total to 4.17 inches, 0.51 inches above average. And, parts of Minnesota have seen far more rain than in central Minnesota. Both the Red River Valley and southern Minnesota accumulated more than 6 inches in May (dark red on the new NWS NWPS map to precipitation estimate and select past month). Parts of southwestern Minnesota shared the 10-15 inches of rain seen in Iowa (cyan). Despite the slow rainfall start, rain was frequent in St. Cloud. 15 of the 31 May days had measurable rainfall. Despite statewide heavy rain on May 20 and 21, St. Cloud set no daily rainfall records with no more than 1.10 inches on any day. May 20 and 21 produced Minnesota's first severe weather outbreak of 2024 with large hail and even a tornado. This was a small piece of the May severe weather regime in the US, which produced over 500 tornadoes (set tab to May 2024 on the NWS Storm Prediction Center Preliminary Storm Summary). Those storms produced 25 deaths (select STATMS at upper right).

The wet May continued the trend seen since the record wet December 2023. The meteorological spring (March 1-May 31) rainfall was 11.40 inches, more than three and a half inches above the 7.84 inch average. That made 2024 St. Cloud's 14th wettest spring on record, missing the top 10 by 0.53 inch. The December through May precipitation was 15.94 inches, the 4th wettest December through May in St. Cloud records (see table below).

And, June is off to a very wet start with 2.65 inches in the first 6 days, 1.93 inch above average.

Mid-May Weather Pattern Change Brought Rain, Eased Canadian Wildfire Issues

The dry early May was produced by a two storm track weather pattern in the Continental US. The really wet and severe storms remained from the central Rockies to Texas and into the middle of the East along the southern storm track, while Minnesota had a series of drier storms in the northern storm track. However, the weather pattern changed during the second half of the month. The southern storm track moved north to the Northern Tier of states, so some of the Gulf of Mexico moisture got into storms affecting Minnesota. The northward progression of storms also produced rain in much of the Canadian Prairies, which washed out the smoke from early season major fires. Several wildfires, including a large one in northeastern British Columbia, had pushed serious smoke levels into Minnesota in mid-May. The rain was accompanied by cooler weather that helped firefighters deal with the Parker Lake fire, the worst of the western Canada wildfires. That fire no longer shows up on this map of Canadian wildfires. There are still some wildfires across the Canadian Prairie Provinces (yellow spots) on the EPA's North American fire-smoke map, but the persistent rain has kept smoke from being a major factor. There hasn't been enough rainfall to make up for three straight dry winters in Alberta, so these areas will still be prone to wildfires if the weather pattern changes.

No April or May Snow, But One Week Produced Top 10 Spring Snowfall

May also marks the outer limit of the 2023-2024 snow season. Even though St. Cloud saw only a trace of April snowfall and no May snowfall, meteorological spring of 2024 produced 18.3 inches of snow, all occurring between March 21 and March 26. This snow week alone produced the 8th snowiest March, gave the spring period above average snowfall (13.0 inch average) and accounted for 57 percent of the entire 2023-2024 cold season snowfall (31.9 inches total). Still, the snow season produced few days of snow cover. There were only 21 straight days with at least an inch on ground, the shortest streak since 1986-1987 (tied for 4th lowest on record, median 86 days) and 21 days with measurable snowfall (32.1 average, 21st lowest on record). There were only 9 days with at least one inch of snowfall (14.0 days average, 17th lowest on record).