Another Balmy Meteorological Winter
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.
Return to Minnesota Climatology Working Group Main Page
URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/balmy_winter_0405.htm
Last modified: March 16, 2005
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