FROM: Bob Weisman

Earth Sciences, St. Cloud State University

The coldest winter I ever experienced was Spring 2002 in Saint Cloud. That old joke may have been an exaggeration, but May 2002 continued the cold weather of the previous two months. According to the statistics from the Saint Cloud Regional Airport, the average May temperature was 51.5 degrees, more than 5 degrees below normal. This temperature tied May 1983 for the 13th coldest May in the 122 years of Saint Cloud weather records. May 2002 was the coldest May since May 1997, the tenth coldest May on record with an average temperature of 51.1 degrees. The coldest May of all time was in 1907 with an average temperature of 47.1 degrees.

The cold conditions in May were dominated by the period from May 1 through May 21. During this period, only May 15 had an above normal average temperature. This below normal streak actually began on April 24. Thus, Saint Cloud endured a period of 21 consecutive days with a below normal temperature, the second longest such streak during the past 14 years. The longest previous recent streak was 23 consecutive days from December 10, 2000 through January 2, 2001. In all, 26 of the 27 days between April 24 and May 21 had below normal temperatures. Amazingly during this period, there were no records set or tied for daily coldest low temperature, high temperature, or mean temperature. The cold weather did produce what appears to be a late final frost of the growing season. This took place on May 20, which was 10 days late. There were 5 days with a below freezing low, nearly double the normal amount, but not extraordinary again.

The cold May helped to produce an average spring (March 1-May 31) temperature of 37.4 degrees in Saint Cloud. This temperature, which is 5.5 degrees below normal, makes Spring 2002 the coldest Spring since 1950 and the fourth coldest spring on record. The coldest spring ever occurred in 1888 with an average temperature of 34.4 degrees (see chart below).

This cold spring, following the warmest November-February period on record, is very unusual. Of the previous 10 warmest winters, 7 years had springs that were at least one degree above normal, including the 3rd, 7th, 11th, and 12th warmest springs on record. Two warm winters were followed by near normal springs. Only the spring of 1932, with an average spring temperature that was about 2 degrees below normal, produced a cold spring following one of the 10 warmest winters on record. The 2001-2002 season is the only year in which one of the 10 warmest winters (#1) was followed by one of the 10 coldest springs (see table below).

May rainfall seemed like a lot, but ended up being below normal. The total May rainfall was 2.06 inches, 0.88 inches below normal. May 2002 was the first May in 5 years with below normal rainfall. The month began rainy with measurable rain during 6 of the first 15 days of May. However, May ended up having only 10 days with measurable rainfall, which is normal for the month.

Despite no May snowfall (at least it wasn’t THAT cold), Spring 2002 is the third snowiest spring in Saint Cloud records. The spring total of 35.1 inches is the heaviest amount since 1965. That spring included the heaviest snow month in Saint Cloud history when 51.7 inches fell in March 1965. Much like this year, the 1964-1965 snow season had below normal snowfall until March, but still holds the record for the most snow in a season with 87.9 inches.

The 2001-2002 cold season snowfall totaled 64.0 inches, the most snow since the 64.9 inches of 1993-1994. The 2001-2002 snowfall was 18.5 inches above normal and the 11th snowiest year of the 95 years in Saint Cloud snowfall records.

MAY 2002 STATISTICS            MAY 2002        NORMAL
TEMPERATURE (oF)
Average High                  63.4                69.0
Average Low                   39.6                44.1
Average Temp                  51.5*              56.6
Warmest high temperature      93 on the 30th 
Coldest high temperature      44 on the 8th 
Mildest low temperature       56 on the 30th 
Coldest low temperature       27 on the 3rd

*Tied with 1983 for 13th coldest May on record
DAILY TEMPERATURE RECORDS: none

RAINFALL (in)                 2.06              2.94
Most in 24 hours               .71 on the 7th 

SNOWFALL (in)                  0.0                 0.1
Total 2001-2002 season        64.0               45.5

SPRING STATISTICS              SPRING 2002      NORMAL
Average High Temperature       47.8             53.8
Average Low Temperature        26.9             31.8
Spring Mean Temperature        37.4$            42.9
Total Melted Precip (in)        6.94             6.92
Total Snowfall (in)            35.1*            12.2

$4th coldest spring on record..see below
*3rd highest spring snowfall on record.. see below
 
     ST. CLOUD TEMPS--SPRING    (122 YEARS; AVG = 42.3 F; SDEV =  2.9 F)

        WARMEST                          COLDEST

     50.0 F  1977                     34.4 F  1888
     49.1 F  1910                     35.8 F  1950
     48.7 F  1987                     37.3 F  1907
     47.8 F  1911                     37.4 F  2002 4th coldest spring on record
     47.3 F  1985                     37.5 F  1943
     47.1 F  1902                     37.6 F  1996
     47.0 F  1998                     37.7 F  1940
     46.3 F  1889                     37.7 F  1965
     46.3 F  1988                     37.9 F  1893
     46.3 F  1918                     38.0 F  1975


     ST. CLOUD SNOWFALL--SPRING    (102 YEARS; AVG =  10.9 IN; SDEV =   8.1 IN)

             SNOWIEST                           DRIEST

      57.8 IN  1964-1965                  0.0 IN  1902-1903
      36.0 IN  1916-1917                  0.0 IN  1901-1902
      35.1 IN  2001-2002                  0.2 IN  1920-1921
      30.7 IN  1950-1951                  0.3 IN  1972-1973
      22.8 IN  1984-1985                  0.4 IN  1986-1987
      22.2 IN  1907-1908                  0.7 IN  1967-1968
      22.1 IN  1963-1964                  1.0 IN  1918-1919
      21.8 IN  1949-1950                  1.3 IN  1958-1959
      20.1 IN  1974-1975                  1.5 IN  1911-1912
      19.8 IN  1994-1995                  1.9 IN  1980-1981

                        WARMEST  COLD SEASONS ON RECORD (1881-2002)
		  COLD SEASON		FOLLOWING SPRING
		    NOV-FEB 		     MAR-MAY                  RANK
                               AVG TEMP                              AVG TEMP (Mean = 42.3 F)
		28.0	2001-2002		37.4               4th coldest spring
		25.2	1930-1931		43.4
		24.6	1881-1882		42.2
		23.8	1918-1919		43.0
		23.7	1997-1998		47.0               7th warmest spring
		23.3	1999-2000		46.2              11th warmest spring
		23.10	1931-1932		40.2
		23.08 	1986-1987		48.7               3rd warmest spring
		22.98	1913-1914		44.3
		22.95	1920-1921		46.1               12th warmest spring
		22.93	1907-1908		43.5

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