October 2007 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Saint Cloud October 2007 Weather Summary  

October 2007 in Saint Cloud, Minnesota finished the recovery from the dry conditions of the summer. The October 2007 rainfall at the Regional Airport totalled 4.14 inches, almost two inches above the normal rainfall of 2.24 inches. The bulk of the rain came in three episodes, primarily fueled by thunderstorms. The first was between the second and the eighth when St. Cloud picked up 2.46 inches of rain, more than the normal amount for the entire month. A pair of slow moving storms dumped a total of 1.68 inches between the 15th and the 19th. This finished a six week period between September 6 and October 19 in which St. Cloud had about double the normal rainfall (8.29 inches fell, compared to a 4.11 inch normal). This was more rain than had fallen during the 3-month-plus period between June 4 and September 16 (6.85 inches). The growing season deficit which had grown to over 6 inches has been narrowed to a little more than 2 inches. More detail about the rainfall deficit can be found in the September 2007 St. Cloud weather summary for the local area and in the Drought Situation Report from the Minnesota State Climatology office. In addition, the US Drought Monitor from the National Drought Mitigation Center only shows one small area of drought remaining in Minnesota, still in the Park Rapids-Detroit Lakes-Wadena-Staples-Motley area

The cause of the heavy rain period was a series of slow moving storms that moved from the Southwestern US into the Plains states. With near summer heat and humidity continuing in the Southern Plains, there was always enough tropical moisture available to fuel outbreaks of thunderstorms. Then, each storm would intensify, then slow down in the Plains states, allowing Minnesota to experience multi-day thunderstorm outbreaks. In fact, there were two good shots at significant rain each week during the wet period, in contrast to the dry summer weather that often produced rainless weeks.

In late October, however, the main steering wind pattern changed to a faster west-to-east flow. This new pattern kept the storm systems moving, kept tropical moisture confined to the Gulf Coast states, and produced frequent temperature shifts, but very dry weather. St. Cloud has not received any measurable rainfall since October 19 and that dry weather will continue through the first week of November. The dry weather was responsible for keeping St. Cloud's rainfall of 4.14 inches out of one of the ten wettest Octobers in St. Cloud records. The October 2007 rainfall total ranks as the 15th wettest out of 115 years and falls short of the October 2005 rainfall (4.80 inches, 8th wettest in St. Cloud history).

As rainy as September and October were in St. Cloud, we did miss out on a good deal of the rain. The Twin Cities set a record for the rainiest August through October with just short of 19 inches of rain for the period. In St. Cloud, the last three months have dropped "only" 12.38 inches, the 15th highest total in St. Cloud records. This amount was exceeded in both 2002 (15.78 inches; 4th highest) and 2005 (13.99 inches; 8th place). The highest August-October rainfall was 19.16 inches, set in 1929.

Temperature-wise, it may have seemed like St. Cloud was in a major heat wave the first week of the month, then got quite cold for the rest of October. However, the St. Cloud October 2007 daily statistics shows that wasn't true. The October average temperature ended up at 50.9°F, 5.6°F warmer than normal. So, October 2007 also ranked as the 15th warmest October among the 127 years in St. Cloud records. October 2007 was also the warmest October in St. Cloud since 1973.

The first week of October was incredible, averaging a high of 74.5°F and a low of 52.9&;F. This would have been normal weather for Memorial Day. During this streak, four record high temperatures were on October 6 and 7, including an 85°F high on the 6th.

After that first week, there were a series of cloudy days with the rain described above. However, the St. Cloud October 2007 daily statistics show that there were only 5 days with below normal temperatures, all between October 9 and 14. After the rains let up, there were 6 days during which the high temperature topped 60 degrees. It took until October 22 to produce the first frost since our cool second week of September and it took until October 28th to have our first low below 28 degrees.

The outlook for early November shows the dry weather generally continuing. The milder than normal weather will continue through the upcoming weekend but we will end up in a much colder weather pattern with steering winds out of central Canada for the first half of next week. That will produce our first period of colder than normal weather since that cold second week of September.

    October 2007 Statistics