A sluggish low pressure system brought a rain and very cool temperatures over much of Minnesota. There were even a few snowflakes mixed with the rain especially during the morning hours of May 12th. Record cold maximum temperatures were set in some places over southern Minnesota. The Twin Cities saw 42 degrees just after midnight and the temperature stayed below that all day. The old record was 44 degrees set in 1953. La Crosse also saw its cold maximum record fall with a new record of 48 degrees. This broke the old record of 49 set back in 1882 and 1888.

Along with the cold, copious amounts of rain fell over south central Minnesota. The highest rainfall reported so far being 4.02 inches of ran at Amboy in Blue Earth County. Winnebago in Faribault County saw 2.63 inches and Waseca had 2.48. The heavy rains fell on already saturated ground across south central parts of the state. One area in the southwest corner of Martin County had 7.24 inches of rain from May 7th to the 13th. The heavy rains caused a mud slide on Highway 23 just south of Jackson.

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URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/coldwet050512.htm
Last modified: May 13, 2005