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Dry 2002-2003 Winter in the Twin Cities
November 2002 -January 2003 was driest ever in the Twin Cities. The total precipitation was .52 inches. This is on the heels of the driest November-December on record for the Twin Cities. .30 was all that fell in those two months. This beat the old record of 1917 which saw .47 inches of rain and snow.
Top 10 driest November-December precipitation amounts for Minneapolis/St. Paul 1891-2002 Rank Year Nov Dec Nov-Dec ------------------------------- 1. 2002 0.09 0.21 0.30 2. 1917 0.06 0.41 0.47 3. 1980 0.26 0.24 0.50 4. 1913 0.48 0.05 0.53 5. 1967 0.09 0.45 0.54 6. 1914 0.19 0.37 0.56 7. 1976 0.16 0.51 0.67 8. 1904 0.10 0.61 0.71 9. 1929 0.36 0.36 0.72 10. 1928 0.35 0.43 0.78 November, 2002 alone was the 4th driest on record with .09 inches of precipitation. December tied for 10th driest and had .21 inches of precipitation, most of that from one single event on the 17th and 18th. January tied for 8th driest at .22 inches. The driest January on record is .05 in 1892 and 1898. For November 2002-January 2003 only .52 inches have fallen. This handily breaks the record by .28 inches. Using the 1971-2000 period of record, 3.98 inches of precipitation is the normal from November to January.
Top 10 driest November-January precipitation amounts for Minneapolis/St. Paul 1891-2003 Rank Year Nov Dec Jan Nov-Jan ------------------------------------------- 1. 2002-2003 0.09 0.21 0.22 0.52 2. 1980-1981 0.24 0.26 0.30 0.80 3. 1917-1918 0.41 0.06 0.38 0.85 4. 1897-1898 0.13 0.70 0.05 0.88 5. 1918-1919 0.26 0.52 0.46 1.24 6. 1967-1968 0.45 0.09 0.71 1.25 7. 1900-1901 0.37 0.61 0.31 1.29 8. 1976-1977 0.51 0.16 0.65 1.32 9. 1958-1959 0.21 1.01 0.11 1.33 10. 1939-1940 0.97 0.02 0.37 1.36
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