The summer of 2005 is drawing to a close and what a summer it was. For the first time since modern records began in 1891 the Twin Cities had a maximum temperature of at least 70 or above for every day this summer! Meteorological summer is June, July and August. Usually there is at least a few chilly days during a typical summer thanks to a strong cold front or a large slow moving area of low pressure, but these were few and far between. Many thanks to Tom Skinner from Meteorlogix for pointing out this interesting statistic to us.

Top ten counts of days with maximum temperatures below 70 F
for the Twin Cities June-August.

Rank    Days with Max    Year
        Temp Below 70 F
1       0                2005 
2(tie)  1                1988  
        1                1971 
        1                1961 
        1                1894 
        1                1893 
7(tie)  2                2002 
        2                1976 
        2                1933 
        2                1932 
        2                1896 

The average temperature for the summer was 74.0 degrees, good enough to tie for the 9th warmest summer on record. June was 5 degrees above normal with 73.4 degrees, July was 3.7 degrees above normal with 3.7 degrees and August was 1.1 degrees above normal with 71.7 degrees. August was notable as a very stable month with many days of near normal temperatures.

Top 10 warmest summers in the Twin Cities.
June through August

Rank    Ave          Year
        Temp F  
1       75.5         1988 
2       75.2         1933 
3       74.3         1949 
4(tie)  74.2         1936 
        74.2         1894 
6(tie)  74.1         1955 
        74.1         1921 
        74.1         1937 
9 (tie) 74.0         1983 
        74.0         2005 

June through August turned out to be slightly wetter than normal thanks to three heavy rain events in August, especially a 2 inch rainfall on August 26th. August was the first month of above normal rainfall since February. So far for 2005 the Twin Cities is about a half an inch below normal.

There were 23 days this summer when the mercury climbed to 90 degrees or higher in the Twin Cities. This places the summer of 2005 14th for 90 degree highs. No 100 degree temperatures were recorded this summer in the Twin Cities or even in the rest of Minnesota.

Return to Minnesota Climatology Working Group Main page

URL: http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/summer05.htm
Last modified: September 1, 2005