St. Cloud, MN Weather Forecast

While April (5 days at least 10 degrees above average; 3 days at least 10 degrees below average) wasn't quite as extreme as March (12 days at least 10 degrees above average; 2 days at least 20 degrees below average), the extremes cancelled each other out more in April than in May. The St. Cloud April 2026 average temperature was 43.9 degrees, only 0.6 degrees below average. Still, April had 3 record warm daily temperatures, including record warm highs of 83 on April 12 and 87 on April 22.

Greening has occurred in central Minnesota, thanks to the heavy rainfall on April 27. While no records were broken, the 1.77 inch that fell in St. Cloud on April 27 was more precipitation than each month between September and March (and only .02 inch short of the August 2025 total). The St. Cloud Airport (3.17 inches in April) was surrounded by even higher April rainfall totals (set NWS Water Prediction Center map to zoom in on Minnesota, set the date to yesterday, and the time period to last 30 days) with 4-6 inches (brown, red) in parts of eastern Stearns County and parts of Meeker and Benton County. That was the highest monthly rainfall total since last July. That partly made up for the late summer through fall rainfall shortage (5.64 inches, 4.44 inches below average, 10th driest Aug-Nov in St. Cloud records). The US Drought Monitor, including rainfall through last Tuesday, showed easing of the drought conditions both in north central and southwestern Minnesota (compare the April 28 update with the April 14 update) but we will need more rain the rest of the spring to ease the remaining rain shortfall.

The rain and warm intervals also came with severe weather. The April 13 system produced both 4 tornadoes and large hail in southern Minnesota. The April 17 storm produced 5 tornadoes in southeastern Minnesota near Rochester, strong tornadoes in Wisconsin, and wind damage in both southeastern and northeastern Minnesota. There were a total of 11 April tornadoes in Minnesota. Minnesota averages 2.1 tornadoes per April and 45 per year.

Despite another lower than average snow season (a total of 41.6 inches), April 2026 was an April with more than 2 inches of snowfall (about 1/3 of seasons have this much April snow), thanks to a pair of early month storms. The total of 3.3 inches was a bit below the average of 4.7 inches.

I'll have more about April as I write the St. Cloud April 2026 weather summary.

More Frosts Possible Next 7 Days

Even though we haven't seen any snow for a while, our return to drier weather has meant that any clear and calm night has the potential to produce a frost. The St. Cloud Airport had frosts both Wednesday and Thursday mornings (see 7-day graph of St. Cloud temperatures from MesoWest) Wednesday night and will get close again this morning (see NWS Aviation Weather Center METAR map) after the leftover clouds (see College of DuPage north central US clean infrared satellite loop) move out.

So, it's too early to put delicate plants in the ground or get your sprinkler system going. The average last frost date is May 7 in St. Cloud and half of the years have final frosts later than that.

Continued Mainly Dry into Next Week With Average Weekend Temperatures (Cooler Today and Early Next Week)

This pattern will continue since weather systems in western North America (the high pressure system, clockwise circulation, over western Canada, and the low pressure system, counterclockwise circulation, over Baja California; see College of DuPage North America mid-level water vapor satellite loop) are slowing to a halt. Since Minnesota is close to the high circulation, the northwest-to-southeast flow will continue to bring reinforcing cooler than average air masses over us, so we will merely alternate between near average high temperatures (in the 60's tomorrow and Sunday, near 60 early on Monday) and cooler than average temperatures (highs in the lower half of the 50's today, and Monday afternoon, only near 50 on Tuesday, and in the 50's on Wednesday). The chances for rainfall will be light (a small chance for sprinkles this afternoon, Saturday afternoon and early evening, and Monday and Tuesday). There could be a stray snowflake in northern Minnesota Monday or Tuesday. There will be frost potential again early tomorrow morning and Tuesday and Wednesday mornings.