November 2015 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

The relatively mild fall continued in near record fashion during November 2015. The average temperature at the St. Cloud Regional Airport was 38.1°F, 7.7°F above average. This makes November 2015 the 6th warmest November. There were only 5 of 30 November days with a below average temperature. In fact, it took colder weather over the last 5 days of the month to drop the average temperature below second place.

There were 7 November days with a high of 60 degrees or warmer including a pair of 68 degree highs on November 2 and 3. There has only been one November in St. Cloud records, 2001, which had more 60 degree highs in November.

St. Cloud set 4 daily record warm temperatures in November, three of them being record warm lows and one being a record warm average temperature.

The warm conditions in November, combined with September (tied for 4th mildest), and October (more than three degrees above average) has led to Fall 2015 being the 3rd warmest fall in the history of St. Cloud temperature observations (since 1893). (Note that meteorological fall runs between Sept 1 and Nov 30). The average fall temperature was 50.7°F, 5.8°F above average. Only fall of 1963 (51.3°F) and fall 1931 (51.2°F) had warmer averages.

While this fall got off to a dry start, the past two months have been wet. November was nearly as wet (3.10 inches) as October (3.14 inches). That was very abnormal for November, so this month was 8th wettest November in St. Cloud records. The 3.10 inches recorded was 1.72 inch above average. For the entire fall, the precipitation was 8.48 inches, only 1.15 inch above average. That's because September was so far below average. The November 16-19 storm produced the most rainfall with 2.05 inches over the four days. Record daily precipitation were recorded on November 17 (1.04 inch), 18 (0.98 inch), and November 30 (0.37 inch). The last of those days was the start of our first major snow with 5.0 inches falling.

The other day with snow was November 19, when there was 0.5 inches at the end of the four day storm. For November, the total snowfall was 5.5 inches, 3.4 inches below average.

There was some talk about how far below average St. Cloud was on snowfall, but the continuation of the November 30 storm has upped the seasonal snowfall to 7.7 inches. That's within three inches of average.

With a strong El Nino (warm Pacific Ocean current) continuing, St. Cloud and all of the Northern Plains have a good chance of seeing a milder than average winter. December 2015 has begun with a week that was 9 degrees warmer than average. It looks like there will be a cool down over this coming weekend, but that's after starting off quite mild.

However, St. Cloud has had both snowy and relatively brown winters during El Nino events, so there's no realistic forecast about how much snow we would see.

*3rd warmest fall