What were the top 5 weather events in Minnesota for 2025?
Please vote for the top five for 2025 by emailing Pete Boulay with your events ranked from 1-5 from this year with #1 being the most important. Please refer to the event by the letter preceding it in the list. You don't need to vote for five entries; if you list just one, we assume it is your #1. The deadline is 12 PM Tuesday, December 30. This page will be replaced by the results that afternoon.
Below are the candidate weather events for Minnesota in 2025 (in rough chronological order.)
A. Cold Outbreak January 17-21, 2025., The coldest air in nearly four years swept across Minnesota between Friday the 17th and Tuesday the 21st of January 2025, sending temperatures into the -10s to -30s F. The Twin Cities stayed at or below zero for 66 hours, with the coldest minimum temperature of -19 F. Despite the chill, it wasn’t a historically significant cold air outbreak.
B. Overnight Blizzard, March 4-5 2025. For the first time of the extended 2024-25 winter season, a powerful, fast-hitting winter storm brought heavy snow, fierce winds, and whiteout conditions to parts of Minnesota. Many southern and southeastern Minnesotans went to bed late on Tuesday March 4th with heavy rain falling, or with rain beginning to change to snow, but then woke up on Wednesday March 5th to intense, wind-blown snow piling up 6-12 inches deep.
C. Record-Early Warmth, March 14 (and 15th), 2025. A burst of intense, early-spring warmth spread across Minnesota on March 14, 2025, breaking high temperature records for the date, and standing as the highest temperature on record so early in the season at some stations. Ten of these daily record-setting stations also set records for the warmest day on record so early in the season. In other words, the maximum temperatures of 77 F at Caledonia and Forest Lake; 76 F at Red Wing and Hastings; 75 F at the Twin Cities and Cambridge; and 73 F at Artichoke Lake and St. Cloud all represent the earliest instances during the year of temperatures that high.
D. April Fools' Heavy Snow and Rain, April 1-3, 2025.. No joke! A large storm system spanning parts of three days beginning on April Fools' Day (Tuesday April 1, 2025), brought heavy, wet snow to western through northeastern Minnesota, a sticky caking of snow virtually everywhere else, with moderate to heavy rains falling in the southern and eastern parts of the state. The highest snowfall total was 16.5 inches, measured by a national Weather Service observer in Ottertail (Otter Tail County). Several observers in west-central Minnesota, or in far northeast Minnesota near Lake Superior, recorded a foot of snow or more, with the Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center recording 14.4 inches.
E. Hot, Fiery Weather, May 10-14, 2025. A hot, dry air mass overspread Minnesota beginning on Saturday May 10th, with record high temperatures and an outbreak of wildfires in parts of the state. The heat reached its greatest intensity on Sunday May 11th with northern Minnesota coming in as the hottest part of the state. International Falls reached a maximum temperature of 96 F, which shattered the old daily record of 83 F, and became the highest temperature ever recorded so early in the season at that station. St. Cloud, the Twin Cities, and Duluth all set daily records, at 93, 90, and 87 F, respectively.
F. Widespread Soaking Rains AND Fire Weather? A prolonged and widespread rainfall event soaked all but the northeastern third of Minnesota with 1 to 3+ inches of rain, from Monday May 19 through Wednesday May 21, 2024. Oddly, the same pattern that blew moisture into the central and southern parts of Minnesota, also blew dry air into northern areas. The strong, dry winds also blew some limbs down, causing thousands of power outages in the Duluth area alone.
G. Bemidji Blowdown: Derecho and Other Severe Thunderstorms, June 20-21, 2025. Waves of extremely intense thunderstorms Friday night and early Saturday (June 20-21, 2025) led to an extraordinary regional severe weather outbreak, with catastrophic damage near Bemidji from the strongest measured winds in Minnesota since 2012. The long-track of intense thunderstorm winds, covering multiple hundreds of miles from North Dakota into Minnesota, qualifies this storm as a "derecho" (pronounced deh-RAY-cho. The extreme winds snapped and uprooted trees; peeled off roofs; knocked down power lines and transmission towers; flipped vehicles; and produced secondary damage to structures and vehicles throughout the area. The damage was so severe that Lake Bemidji State Park closed for multiple days, and nearby Lake Itasca State Park and La Salle Lake State Recreation Area both had to limit availability of some facilities and services. The 106 mph gust at Bemidji was the strongest measured gust in Minnesota since August 3, 2012, when a 107 mph gust was recorded by a road-weather sensor in Rothsay.
H. Severe Thunderstorms and Flooding, July 27-28, 2025.Heavy thunderstorms produced large hail, gusty winds, and torrential downpours across all but northwestern Minnesota, with localized major flooding around Morris. By far the heaviest rainfall was in the flooded areas of west-central Minnesota, particularly in Stevens and eastern Big Stone counties, where observers reported totals of 5-6 inches. The torrents of rain led to serious flooding, with submerged roads, some smaller ones reported washed out, basement flooding, and standing water in fields.
I. The Great Minnesota Smokeout of 2025. The summers of 2021 and 2023 may have begun to normalize wildfire smoke pollution in Minnesota, but 2025 took it to a new level and was likely the smokiest year in five decades or more. From June through August, Minnesota experienced 15 days with at least one station recording a daily Air Quality Index (AQI) of 151 or higher, which is the "Red" or "Unhealthy for everyone" category.
J. The Latest Run of Summer-like Days on Record. In the midst of a prolonged warm spell that began during what was already a very warm September, sunny skies and southerly winds conspired to boost temperatures into record territory across virtually all of Minnesota on October 4th, 2025. In many parts of Minnesota, this was the latest date on record with such high temperatures. Temperatures soared into the 80s in northeastern Minnesota, and the 90s F across virtually all of the west and the south. Duluth, International Falls, Rochester, Saint Cloud, and the Twin Cities all broke high temperature records for the date. In the Twin Cities and Saint Cloud, the maximum of 91 F was highest temperature ever recorded so late in the season; at Saint Cloud, it was also the latest date on record to reach 90 F or higher.
K. Winter Storm and Blizzard: November 25-26, 2025. The inaugural winter storm of the 2025-26 winter struck right before the Thanksgiving holiday, with the first measurable snow for the season for many locations in central and southern Minnesota. An intensifying low pressure system moved roughly west to east across Minnesota on Tuesday November 25, and by Wednesday morning November 26 the low was over upper Michigan. The highest total reported in Minnesota was 10.3 inches at the Duluth International Airport. The Twin Cities reported 3.1 inches by 6am Wednesday November 26. Some of the peak wind gusts on November 25th include: 44mph at St. Cloud, 47 mph at the Twin Cities, 49 mph at Fargo, 51mph at Worthington at 7pm on the 25th, 52mph at Jackson, and a gust of 56mph at Tracy both at 8pm on the 25th.
L. A Mess of Heavy Snow, Slush, and Ice, December 9-10, 2025.A strong "Clipper" system produced a band of intense snow along with a mix snow, sleet, freezing rain, and rain across much of Minnesota from Tuesday December 9 into Wednesday December 10, 2025. Snowfall totals of 3 to 8 inches were generally found along a northwest-to-southeast axis running along and mostly north of I-94. The National Weather Service observer in Ottertail received 10.0, with 9.0 inches in Cass Lake and Warren. Other totals around the state included 6.6 inches at St. Cloud, 4.4 inches in the Twin Cities, 1.3 inches in Rochester, 1.2 inches in Duluth, and 0.2 inches at International Falls.
For reference, here is last year's top 5!