Despite a return to winter-like conditions during the second half of February, the meteorological winter of 2004-2005 will go down in the record books as yet another mild winter. This makes four of the past eight winters finishing in the top fifteen all time warmest winters.

Below is a statement from the Chanhassen National Weather Service about the balmy winter.

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TWIN CITIES/CHANHASSEN MN
900 AM CST THU MAR 03 2005

...ANOTHER WARMER THAN NORMAL METEOROLOGICAL WINTER...

WITH THE SUMMER OF 2004 ENDING AS ONE OF THE COOLEST ON RECORD 
ACROSS MUCH OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN MINNESOTA...AND THE AUTUMN 
SEASON RANKING AS ONE OF THE WARMEST IN HISTORY...THERE WAS MUCH 
SPECULATION ON HOW THE WINTER SEASON (DEC-FEB) OF 2004-2005 WOULD 
END UP.

THE RESULTS ARE IN...AND IN THE TWIN CITIES...THE AVERAGE 
TEMPERATURE OF THE METEOROLOGICAL WINTER WAS 21.4 DEGREES...WHICH IS 
4.5 DEGREES ABOVE THE NORMAL OF 16.9 DEGREES. THIS RANKS AS THE 15TH 
WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL WINTER IN RECORDED HISTORY DATING BACK TO 
1891. 

DECEMBER 2004 STARTED OUT THE WINTER ON A WARM NOTE...AVERAGING 4.0 
DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. JANUARY FOLLOWED SUIT...AVERAGING 2.5 DEGREES 
ABOVE NORMAL. FEBRUARY CAPPED THE WARM RUN...AVERAGING A WHOPPING 
6.1 DEGREES ABOVE NORMAL. THIS WAS THE 13TH WARMEST FEBRUARY IN TWIN 
CITIES HISTORY. 

HERE ARE THE WARMEST METEOROLOGICAL WINTERS IN THE TWIN 
CITIES...DATING BACK TO 1891.

TEMPERATURE       WINTER
-------------------------------------
1.  26.8        1930-1931 & 2001-2002
3.  25.8        1997-1998
4.  25.7        1986-1987
5.  23.9        1982-1983
6.  23.2        1920-1921
7.  23.1        1943-1944
8.  23.0        1999-2000
9.  22.6        1918-1919 & 1931-1932
11. 22.4        1941-1942
12. 22.1        1907-1908
13. 22.0        1891-1892
14. 21.9        1959-1960
15. 21.4        2004-2005 (****)

THIS IS THE 4TH STRAIGHT WINTER WITH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES...AND 
7 OUT OF THE LAST 8 WHICH HAVE COME IN WARMER THAN NORMAL. IN 
FACT...14 OUT OF THE LAST 17 METEOROLOGICAL WINTERS IN THE TWIN 
CITIES HAVE BEEN WARMER THAN NORMAL. 

ON A MORE RECENT NOTE...THIS IS THE 6TH STRAIGHT MONTH IN THE TWIN 
CITIES WITH ABOVE NORMAL TEMPERATURES. LOOKING AT THESE 6 MONTHS IN 
PARTICULAR (SEP 04 - FEB 05)...THIS 6 MONTH STRETCH WAS THE 7TH 
WARMEST IN TWIN CITIES HISTORY OF SIMILAR TIME PERIOD (SEP-FEB). 

ONLY 23.3 INCHES OF SNOW FELL IN THE METEOROLOGICAL WINTER. THE 
LATEST 30 YEAR CLIMATOLOGICAL NORMAL FOR THE TWIN CITIES SUGGESTS 
31.7 INCHES OF SNOW SHOULD FALL IN THESE THREE MONTHS. SO WHILE IT 
HAS SEEMED TO BE A MEAGER WINTER SNOWFALL SEASON...THE AREA IS ONLY 
ONE SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL AWAY FROM BEING "NORMAL". 

HOWEVER...THROW NOVEMBER INTO THE MIX...AND IT BECOMES MORE APPARENT 
THAT THE FIRST HALF OF THE WINTER IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SNOW DEBT. 
INCLUDING NOVEMBER...41.7 INCHES OF SNOW SHOULD HAVE FALLEN BY 
NOW...AND THE NWS OFFICE IN CHANHASSEN (OFFICIAL MEASURING LOCATION) 
HAS ONLY MEASURED 24.1 INCHES.

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/balmy_winter_0405.htm
Last modified: March 16, 2005