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SUBJECT: August 2001 Hot Spell in St. Cloud and Heat Wave Information
The recent hot spell in Saint Cloud was noteworthy for its high humidity, but set relatively few records. Only one daily high temperature record was set during the outbreak. However, the five consecutive days of 90-degree highs was the first such period in Saint Cloud since 1995. This was not the longest period on record, but it was only the 40th heat wave (defined as at least 5 consecutive days of 90-degree highs) on record and only the 8th during the month of August.
CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH HIGH AUGUST CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH HIGH
>= 90 DEGREES (SAINT CLOUD: 1896-2001) >= 90 DEGREES (SAINT CLOUD: 1896-2001)
Dates Number of Days Dates Number of Days
15-18 July 1936 14 1-8 Aug 1930 8
13-24 July 1901 12 18-24 Aug 1976 7
16-25 June 1910 10 16-21 Aug 1901 6
31 Jul - 8 Aug 1930 9 14-19 Aug 1922 6
24 Jul - 1 Aug 1935 9 7-11 Aug 1936 5
15-23 Jul 1964 9 7-11 Aug 1947 5
19-26 Jun 1911 8 1-5 Aug 1964 5
14-21 Jul 1932 8 4-8 Aug 2001 5
2-9 Jul 1948 8
4 streaks of 7 days
10 streaks of 6 days
17 streaks of 5 days
Most Recent: 10-14 July 1995
4-8 August 2001
(40 Heat Waves on Record)
The heat wave pushed the number of St. Cloud annual highs of at least 90 degrees to 18. This is the most number of such highs since 1988. However, it is far from the 10 highest number of 90-degree days, most of which took place in the first half of the 20th century.
ANNUAL HIGHS OF >= 90 DEGREES SAINT CLOUD: 1896-2001 (Average per year: 10.7) Year Days 1936 36 1900 34 1988 33 1931 31 1910 29 1933 28 1934 28 1937 26 1901 25 1930 25 2001 18The high humidity cannot be compared to Saint Cloud records since the records did not have overnight observations for many years. However, the high humidity can be cross-checked with the overnight lows. The two days with a low of at least 75 degrees in 2001 marked only the 8th time there have been more than one day in a year and accounts for more than 4 percent of all the lows of at least 75 degrees. The 7 days with a low of at least 70 degrees tied for 12th all time with 1932 and 1933. It is also the first year since 1955 that appears on this list. ANNUAL LOWS OF >= 70 DEGREES ANNUAL LOWS OF >= 75 DEGREES SAINT CLOUD: 1896-2001 (Avg: 3.1 days) SAINT CLOUD: 1896-2001 (Avg: 0.5 days) Year Days Year Days 1931 16 1931 7 1900 11 1901 4 1936 11 1936 3 1937 10 1898 2 1941 9 1905 2 1897 8 1916 2 1901 8 1964 2 1930 8 2001 2 1935 8 1947 8 49 days on record 1955 8 1932 7 1933 7 2001 7 2001 Record Highs Since May 1: 2(May 15, Aug 6) 2001 Record Warm Lows Since May 1: 3 (June 25, Jul 31, Aug 5)The high temperature of 98 failed to reach the last 100-degree reading 11 years ago. There have only been 57 days in Saint Cloud records which have had a high temperature of 100 degrees and only 8 days since 1950 (7 in 1988; 1 in 1990).
LAST SAINT CLOUD HIGH OF 100 OR HIGHER: July 3, 1990 (101 degrees)
LAST SAINT CLOUD AUGUST HIGH OF 100+: August 16, 1950 (only 7 August 100+
highs on record)
URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/stcheat.htm Last modified: August 20, 2001
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