The cold, rain and even flurries we saw in the metro area Wednesday and Thursday morning may not feel like May weather, but head north and the spring weather is even more cruel.
Just north of the Twin Cities, there were a couple of inches of snow. 2-4 fell in the Little Falls area, 0.5 inches in St. Cloud. Keep going northeast and it gets worse.
As WCCO's Paul Douglas said, "I'm just as annoyed, flabergasted and flummoxed as any of you. I think we're all ready to start complaining about heat and humidity. If there's an upside, the cool weather has kept us from seeing any severe storms so far this spring."
Through Wednesday, 8.3 inches of snow had fallen in Duluth. The previous record for a May snowstorm was 5.5 inches in 1902. Plus, they're expecting another 1 to 3 inches later Thursday. Hermantown, just south of Duluth, and Two Harbors, further up the North Shore are both over 9 inches. To make this storm even more fun for those in the Arrowhead region, the heavy wet snow has power out for a few thousand people.
Several snowfall records have already been broken for the Duluth area. The table in the image shows a list of these records. Stay tuned as the Monthly snowfall total and daily snowfall for today (5/9) are likely to change. #mnwx #mnclimate pic.twitter.com/nYbGyV6kZt
— NWS Duluth (@NWSduluth)
May 9, 2019 Unbelievable! Duluth, MN ran the table on May snowfall #records on Wed: 8.3" of #snow fell, breaking the daily, calendar-day, snowstorm & monthly records. And it's still snowing, adding to the snowstorm and monthly totals.Photos from @nwsduluth & Amanda Christianson pic.twitter.com/LqpyjIP3VA
— Mike Seidel (@mikeseidel)
May 9, 2019 Closer to home, a trace of snow was measured at MSP, with 1.5 inches of precipitation overall. Winds gusts of up to 30 mph and temps in the 40's made for a very raw May day.
The good news is the snow should not stick around long. Highs by Friday should hit 60, with mid 50's in Duluth, which should melt anything that is left quickly. Saturday looks very breezy with temps a couple degrees warmer than Friday which should be good enough for the fishing opener if you're getting out on the water. Next week expect a good run of 60's, possibly into the 70's in parts of southern Minnesota.
All this precipitation is greening up trees and lawns quickly, but it has made it hard on farmers. Much of the country saw a wet January-April, including Minnesota.
Jan. through April 2019 ranked as 7th wettest YTD on record, with 11.24 inches of rain, 1.76 inches above avg: @NOAANCEIclimate https://t.co/JO8wCkQdq0 #StateOfClimate pic.twitter.com/TYgjSVY5cE
— NOAA (@NOAA)
May 8, 2019 According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, corn planting is running 36% below the running 5-year average in Minnesota with only 6% of the corn in the ground. Similar things are happening all over the Midwest.
Hang in there Minnesota. We'll once again earn our summer.
