First of all, happy first day of meteorological spring!  Even though our weather has been more or less reminiscent of March pretty much all winter long, now it’s actually official.  Taking a look at our very March-like February in Rochester, we ended up receiving less than half the normal amount of snow while rainfall was double the usual total thanks mostly to that very mild and wet storm system that brought us soaking showers on Tuesday night.  Temperatures reached into  in the 30s and 40s each day with just two exceptions last month bringing our average high to 35 degrees and a mean of 27.7 degrees, good for the seventh warmest all-time February in Rochester history.  It ended up being the second warmest winter all-time with a mean temperature of 25.5 degrees which is a degree shy of the record of 26.3 set in 1930-31.

It was the 7th warmest February in Rochester history and not particularly snowy.

Looking ahead at the weekend, we will get a slight taste of winter with some light snow showers and flurries, but little in the way of accumulation is expected.  Next week and even the longer term outlook for the first couple of weeks of March look rather mild with 40s and 50s expected.

Posted under climate

With just two weeks remaining in meteorological winter we find ourselves getting closer and closer to setting a new record for the warmest winter in history.  As our temperatures continue to hover some ten degrees above climate average this month, our overall mean temperatures for the winter continues to climb, drawing us closer to the highest mean temperature ever recorded in Rochester of 25.1° set ten years ago in 2001-02.  The way things appear right now, we’ll pass that record in the next week or two as the forecast is calling for highs in the 30s with lows mainly in the lower and mid 20s.  Here’s the official statement and summary of our current situation from the National Weather Service in La Crosse, Wisconsin:

Warmest Winter Since 2001-02…So Far

Posted under winter weather

Talk about polar opposites when comparing last winter to this winter.  I decided to jump the gun a little bit and give a winter update on where things are standing in terms of breaking any seasonable records.  Some of these are eye popping and I couldn’t contain waiting til the end of meteorological winter (December,January, February) which officially ends the first day of March.  That leaves us with 17 days to change some things around, but in the grand scheme of things when you have had over two months of an extremely mild winter, that time frame really won’t change much in the temperature department.  I was busy crunching some numbers and checking climate stats and here what I came with.

We are going to take this month by month.  December gave us our first “brown” Christmas since 2006 and temperature wise it was “warm” enough to be tied with the 9th warmest December on record with an average temperature of 26.05°.  This average temperature contains the highs averaged in with the low temperatures in case you were wondering.   We picked up 8.4 inches of snow coming out to be 1.21 inches in its liquid equivalent, both on the very low side when compared to our record setting December of last year.

In January our average temperature was 22.8° degrees.  That was good enough to tie us for 6th warmest January on record.  We picked up 8.1 inches of snow translating to .57 inches of its liquid equivalent.

Those two months are set in stone, but we still have half of February to go.  So far February’s temps are staying on the mild side.  The average through the first 12 days is 25.17°.  That puts us in a tie for 7th warmest Feb on record so far.  We have only seen a trace of snow as of Feb. 12th.

The eye popping part now comes together.  When you put December, January and what we have for February so far, we are on pace for the 3rd warmest meteorological winter on record!  Here is the top ten.  Our official number comes in at 25. 17°

As a side note for snowfall, we currently have the third lowest amount.  Now snowfall is measured through June, so we do have a lot of time to make up for our low snow amounts, let’s just hope it doesn’t come in June.

Posted under climate, weather

While we’ve had a couple of cold spells in the past six weeks, the majority of our meteorological winter thus far has been incredibly warm and now ranks in the top ten in Rochester’s history.  Here’s a statement from the National weather Service in La Crosse regarding our mild winter.  A Very interesting bit of data!

Exceptionally Warm Start to the 2011-12 Winter

 

The first half of the 2011-12 meterological winter (December 1, 2011 through January 15, 2012) was exceptionally warm across the northern and eastern United States.  Locally, temperatures averaged 6 to 12 degrees above normal which made it the warmest start to a winter since 2006-07. It was the fifth warmest start to a winter at Rochester, MN and the tenth warmest start to a winter at La Crosse, WI.

Temperature Departures across the United States from December 1, 2011 through January 15, 2012

Why So Warm?

The following weather conditions led to this exceptionally warm start… 

1. Lack of Snow - This usually results in temperatures averaging about 11 degrees warmer than normal.
2. Polar Jet Stream remained generally north of the area - This was a result of the Arctic Oscillation being in its positive phase.  When this occurs, the polar jet stream usually remains north of 60 degrees north latitude.  This keeps the arctic air bottled up near the arctic circle.
3. Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO) remained over the tropical Indian Ocean and Western Pacific Ocean - The Madden Julian Oscillation is a tropical disturbance that propagates eastward around the global tropics.  It typically originates over the Indian Ocean and then propagates around the world anywhere from 30 to 60 days.  When this oscillation is located across the Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, temperatures across the eastern half of the United States usually average above normal.

More information on just how warm this winter has been so far at La Crosse, WI; Rochester, MN; and across the remainder of the area can be found below.

Rochester MN…

From December 1st through January 15th, the average temperature at Rochester International Airport was 26.1 degrees.  This was 9.1 degrees above the normal of 17 degrees.  This was the fifth warmest first half of a meteorological winter. The last time that a winter started off this warm was during the winter of 2006-07 (27.7 degrees).

The table below lists the ten warmest winters through January 15th.

    Warmest First Halves of a Winter
in Rochester MN
1886-2012

Average
Rank    Temperature     Winter
—-    ———–     ——
1     27.7 degrees   2006-07
27.7 degrees   1913-14
3     27.1 degrees   1959-60
4     26.7 degrees   1931-32
5     26.1 degrees   2011-12
6     25.8 degrees   2001-02
7     24.1 degrees   1982-83
8     23.7 degrees   1979-80
9     23.6 degrees   1987-88
10     23.3 degrees   1957-58

Elsewhere…

Northeast Iowa…

Cresco             25.5 degrees    + 8.5 degrees
Decorah            28.6 degrees    +11.6 degrees
Elkader            26.6 degrees    + 6.6 degrees
Guttenberg         31.0 degrees    +11.0 degrees
Oelwein            27.0 degrees    + 8.0 degrees
Waukon             26.4 degrees    + 7.4 degrees

Southeast Minnesota…

Byron              23.2 degrees    + 7.2 degrees
Grand Meadow       23.5 degrees    + 7.5 degrees
Minnesota City Dam 27.5 degrees    +10.5 degrees
Preston            25.2 degrees    + 8.2 degrees
Winona Dam         27.0 degrees    +10.0 degrees

Western Wisconsin…

Alma Dam           27.7 degrees    +10.7 degrees
Friendship         26.2 degrees    + 8.2 degrees
Hillsboro          26.4 degrees    + 7.4 degrees
Medford            21.4 degrees    + 8.4 degrees
Lone Rock          29.2 degrees    +10.2 degrees
Lynxville Dam      30.7 degrees    +11.7 degrees
Owen               21.1 degrees    + 6.1 degrees
Sparta             26.0 degrees    + 8.0 degrees
Trempealeau Dam    28.7 degrees    +10.7 degrees
Viroqua            25.1 degrees    + 6.1 degrees

 

Posted under climate

We turned the page on the calendar overnight and just like that, we went from November into December and from fall weather into winter as a cold front and its associated storm system brought brought us a dusting of snow to start the new month.  Of course, this is meteorological winter and we should expect this, but it’s just amazing how Old Man Winter can be so prompt sometimes.  Before today, most of us had only seen a minuscule amount of snow during our rather dry and mild November, a month that featured officially only 0.2 inches of snowfall in Rochester.   The average amount of November snow would be closer to 6 inches, but these things can be quite variable early in the season.  Some Novembers are much drier than others and this year’s version was especially so.  Here’s a look at the climate numbers from our dry and mild November:

It was the 8th warmest November in Rochester history and the driest in several years.

From the looks of things in our current forecast, we’ll be making up lost time in the way of snowfall as another storm system will move into the region this weekend, possibly bringing us more accumulating snow.  While it doesn’t look like a huge snow event, it may drop a little more snow than the past couple of storms in our area.

Posted under climate

Our snow depth journey in Rochester this winter. I wrote this on the 21st, so excuse a little of the old data. I’ll try to update February’s tomorrow.

December 2010: Very snowy month (41.3″), with a few big storms, and a melting spell right around the New Year. We lost 10″ of snow depth in the last week of December thanks to the snow compacting and the late-month warm-up/rain.

Lowest: 0.0″ (Dec. 3)
Highest: 29.0″ (Dec. 21, 25, 26)
Average: 18.1″ (This really isn’t fair, however, since the first half of the month had little snow depth.)
First 1/2 December average: 10.0″
Last 1/2 December average: 25.8″

January 2011: Not a whole lot of snow (9.8″), but cold, so our snow depth hung on.

Lowest: 16.0″ (Jan. 10, 29, 30)
Highest: 19.0″ (Jan. 1, 2, 4, 15-21)
Average: 17.9″

February 2011: Not a whole lot of snow (9.3″ so far), but we had a roller coaster temperature ride, including highs in the 40s, which cost us 15″ of snow by the 20th. See the graphic below for the snow depth hit we took this month.

Lowest: 4.0″ (Feb. 20)
Highest: 19.0″ (Feb 1-4)
Average: 14.8″

Feb 2011 Snow Depth in Rochester

And if it was funny enough, take a look at the Twin Cities (MSP Airport) and their snow depth over the month of February. They basically lost it all by the 20th…and then ended back up with what they had at the start of the month, thanks to the weekend storm.

Feb 2011 Snow Depth in the Twin Cities (MSP Airport)

March is one of our snowiest months, with

Posted under winter, winter weather

Halfway through Meteorological Winter, and we have bookmarked ourselves amongst some of the most notable winters of the past. The folks over at the NWS in La Crosse have dug up where we’re sitting so far during this interesting 2008-2009 winter.

Posted under climate, KTTC, Rochester, weather, winter weather