November 2018 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Temperatures through much of the last two-thirds of fall ended up foreshadowing weather to come. While much of early October seemed more like November, two cold streaks in November often produced December- or even January-like weather. For a week, the temperature only reached 30 degrees once between November 7 and 13. There were 3 lows in the single digits and a -2 degree low on November 13. This tied for the 13th earliest sub-zero low in St. Cloud records. The earliest was November 2, 1951 when the low dropped to -1. The last sub-zero low this early in the season was on November 8, 1991 (one of 5 record cold lows in the aftermath of the Halloween Blizzard, including St. Cloud's earliest -10 low).

The second spell of December or even January-like cold hit after Thanksgiving weekend with no highs above 29 degrees during the last 6 days of the month.

Overall, these cold readings produced St. Cloud's 18th coldest November with an average temperature of 24.1 degrees, 6.3 degrees below average. The last colder November was just 4 years ago (2014: 22.9 degrees; 9th coldest in St. Cloud records). The colder than average October and November ended up producing a meteorological fall average temperature of 42.2 degrees, 2.7 degrees colder than average and 0.7 degrees short of breaking the 10 coldest falls in St. Cloud records. Both 1991 and 1993 were among the 10 coldest falls, in large part to the large early season snowfall in both years (over 13 inches in 1993 and a top 4 snowiest November in 1991). 2014 was the most recent November with a top 10 snowfall. Note that, while 2014 fell short of a fall extreme, it did produce the 9th coldest November on record.

During 2018, the question was what could have been had there been more consistent and deeper snow. The St. Cloud area did see 6.8 inches of snow during November, most notably with 4.3 inches between November 9 and 11. However, a mild spell melted that nearly completely by the 16th. A late month storm added an inch of snowfall.

While fall temperatures were significantly colder than average, the precipitation was 7.00 inches, within a third of an inch of average. For the 2018 year so far, the total precipitation of 26.87 inches was within 0.04 inch of average.