SUBJECT: Early May showers bring late May flowers St. Cloud May 1999 and Spring 1999 Weather Summary May 1999 was a warm and wet month, according to the statistics from the St. Cloud Airport. The average temperature of 58.3 degrees was nearly 2 1/2 degrees above normal. While it did not reach the extraordinary warmth of last year (avg temp of 62.1 degrees, 7th warmest May on record), May 1999 was the third warmest May of the 1990's. Despite the Memorial Day weekend of 1999 having three days with a high temperature above 85 degrees, it still pales compared to the 3 days with highs above 90 degrees which happened in the middle of May during last year. The warm temperatures came after a rainy first half of the month. The total rainfall for May was 4.72 inches, which was more than an inch and a half above normal. All but .07 inches fell in the first 15 days of the month. Two days (the 10th and 12th) recorded more than an inch of rain. The 1.31 inch on the 12th broke a record for rainfall on May 12 and was the highest single day rainfall total since July 14, 1998 (1.62 inch). The last month containing two days with at least an inch of rainfall was August 1997. The high rainfall total in May marked the rainiest May since 1993, the year of the severe flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, mostly from southern Minnesota to Missouri and Illinois. The May 1999 rainfall was the third highest rainfall total in the past 20 years. The combination of the heavy rain early in the month and warm weather late in the month has pushed the growing season into overdrive. For the spring season (March 1-May 31), St. Cloud reached an average temperature of 45.3 degrees, which was 3 degrees above normal, but not as warm as the extremely warm spring of 1998 (47.0 degrees, 7th warmest on record). The heavy May rains pushed the spring precipitation total to about an inch above normal. =========================================================================== MAY 1999 STATISTICS MAY 1999 NORMAL TEMPERATURE Average High 69.3 68.4 Average Low 47.2 43.4 Average Temp 58.3 55.9 Warmest high temperature 88 on the 29th Coldest high temperature 50 on the 12th Mildest low temperature 61 on the 4th Coldest low temperature 33 on the 9th RAINFALL (in) 4.72 3.16 Most in 24 hours 1.31 on the 12th (record; see below) RECORDS SET: Daily maximum rainfall: 1.31 in on the 12th (old record: .87 in 1983) SPRING STATISTICS SPRING 1999 NORMAL Average Temperature 45.3 42.3 Total Melted Precip(in) 7.95 6.92 ============================================================================= Bob Weisman, Meteorology Professor SUPERVISOR: Shirley (age 7) Earth Sciences Department PHONE: (320) 255-3247 (V) MS 48 (800) 627-3529 (TTY via Saint Cloud State University Minnesota Relay Service) 720 4th Avenue South FAX: (320) 255-4262 Saint Cloud, Minnesota 56301-4498 EMAIL: scsweisman@tigger. stcloudstate.edu ===============================================================================
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