The 2013 meteorological spring season (March-May) exhibited cooler than normal temperatures and plenty of precipitation for Minnesota and surrounding regions. For many regions the precipitation ranked in the top 15 years of data keeping for spring, however most locations were eclipsed by the 2012 spring season. This being said, the 2013 spring season still had some of the highest amounts of precipitation on record. A couple of interesting notes-- Rochester had the wettest spring on record, beating out 2001's precipitation by over 6 inches. Fargo also had a wet spring, yet it could not beat out 1902's record at 11.44 inches.
Below are Spring 2013 rankings of precipitation compared to the 1981-2010 normal.
Spring (Mar. 1st -- May 31st) 2013 Precipitation in Inches (High --> Low) Location Rank Precip. Dep. From Normal ------------------------------------------------ Twin Cities 4th 13.50 +6.19 St Cloud 13th 10.51 +3.45 Duluth 14th 10.79 +3.71 Fargo 2nd 10.71 +5.27 Grand Forks 11th 7.38 +3.11 Sioux Falls 15th 10.96 +4.28 Rochester 1st 21.90 +13.62 La Crosse 2nd 16.53 +8.17 Intl. Falls 7th 8.72 +4.41
The Twin Cities and Duluth had pretty mild temperatures by a climatological perspective, with the Twin Cities only dipping 2 degrees below average and Duluth going 1.7 degrees below average. Other locations had relatively cooler conditions; Sioux Falls recorded an average 41.4 degrees which the area has not experienced since 1997.
Spring (Mar. 1st -- May 31st) 2013 Mean Temperature in Fahrenheit (Low --> High) Location Rank Mean Temp. Dep. From Normal --------------------------------------------------- Twin Cities 31st 42.2 -2.0 St Cloud 5th 37.5 -4.8 Duluth 28th 35.2 -1.7 Fargo 9th 36.2 -4.8 Grand Forks 6th 33.5 -5.4 Sioux Falls 8th 41.4 -3.4 Rochester 7th 39.9 -3.6 La Crosse 6th 42.6 -3.9 Intl. Falls 5th 32.3 -5.1
St Cloud and Fargo's mean temperature tied with the cool spring of 1996, which also had very late ice out dates on lakes across the state. In general, spring of 1950 was a cooler spring overall and that year still has the majority of ice out records.
Prepared by John McCarty, Climatology Volunteer
Pete Boulay, DNR Climatologist