It has been a brutally hot summer for much of the Western and Southern US with extreme dryness in California, Oregon, and the Plains from Nebraska southward. While Minnesota has sampled the heat at times, most notably during the outbreak of 100-degree temperatures in June, the Gopher State has often been just on the southern edge of Canadian air masses, allowing frequent breaks. There also have been outbreaks of thunderstorms in parts of Minnesota, especially the north and central areas, that have produced spotty heavy rainfall, but also have missed pockets.

Overall, St. Cloud has been one of the cooler and wetter places in central Minnesota. While St. Cloud has registered a warmer than average August (68.8 degrees, 1.1 degree above average) and meteorological summer, June 1-August 31, (69.9 degrees, 1.9 degrees above average), it has not seen the number of hot days just a bit further south in central Minnesota (see table below). On the other hand, St. Cloud again registered above average rainfall in August (4.49 inches, +0.49 inch), as did much of eastern and and average summer rainfall (12.13 inches, 0.78 inch above average), despite an often dry July. Much of eastern and northern Minnesota shared in the August rainfall with large areas over 5 inches of rain (red on the NWS August Minnesota rainfall chart). However, the Minnesota River Valley, the Twin Cities, and west central Minnesota are still well behind on rainfall during the June-August period (brown areas on the NWS meteorological summer Minnesota rainfall departure from average map). Only a small area of central Minnesota, including St. Cloud, Rice, and most of Morrison County have this 90-day rain surplus.

In St. Cloud, the growing season (April 1-August 31) rainfall has totaled 23.00 inches, including a pair of 3-inch rain storms in May and June. That is 5.38 inches above average and the 11th wettest April through August in St. Cloud records. However, just to the south, a swath of Minnesota from the Twin Cities to southwestern Minnesota (yellow on the middle chart of Minnesota DNR August 30 growing season rainfall percentage). Note that Redwood Falls is also one of the gaps in the blue, so they are more than 9 inches behind in growing season rainfall.

St. Cloud added only 1 90-degree high in August and has only 7 such days so far this warm season. That is many fewer than the 17 90-degree highs at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and 20 days, 1 on August 31, at Redwood Falls. Both cities had summer average temperatures at least 3 degrees warmer than St. Cloud. Still, St. Cloud has seen two highs of at least 97 degrees, including the first 100-degree in 11 years.

Looking ahead to September, St. Cloud has frequently needed a prolonged growing season with a late frost to make up for either cold or wet conditions requiring a late planting in the spring. However, this has often occurred in recent years. 7 of the past 8 Septembers has seen an average September temperature of at least 60 degrees (September average is 59.5 degrees). The median date for St. Cloud's first frost is August 26. There have been only 5 days with September frost in the past 8 years, occurring only in 3 years (from fall of 2013 on).

At least the early part of September this year features a taste of summer warmth during most of the first 5 days.

    August 2022 Statistics

Summer (June 1-August 31) 2022 Statistics