Weather

February 1998 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

This Month's Daily Statistics

SUBJECT: Record Warm February Caps Extrordinarily Mild Winter
February 1998 and Winter 1997-98 St. Cloud Summary


Here's a winter to tell your grandchildren about the next time
it's -20 for a week or two. The meteorological winter (Dec. 1-Feb. 28) of
1997-1998 ended with the warmest February in 118 years of St. Cloud weather
records. The average February temperature was 29.6 degrees, beating February
1987, the previous warmest February, by 0.7 degrees and averaging more than
15 degrees above normal. The average high for February 1998 was 35.9 degrees,
11 degrees above normal, and the average low was 23.2 degrees, almost 20
degrees above normal.

The key to beating the old record was a mild spell during the second
half of the month. Temperatures rose above freezing on February 14 and
stayed no lower than freezing until the evening of February 28. Seven
record warm lows and two record highs were tied or broken during this
streak, including a new all-time record mild high for February on the
25th (40 degrees; see details of records below). The first 14 days of
the month "only" averaged 20.6 degrees (avg high: 28.6; avg low: 12.5),
about 6 degrees above normal, and included only one record-tying warm low.
But, the thaw of the last 14 days had an average temperature of 38.6 degrees
(avg high: 43.3; avg low: 33.9), more than 24 degrees above normal. During
this period, St. Cloud went from a normal amount of snow cover to bare ground.

There were also no days with a low of zero or below in February
1998, only the second time in St. Cloud history that this has occurred. The
previous time was in February 1987. This brings the winter total of
below zero days to 14 for 1997-1998 (4-Nov, 1-Dec, 9-Jan, 0-Feb), which
would be the lowest total in St. Cloud history if it holds up.

The mild conditions of February brought the average winter
temperature to 23.0 degrees, the second warmest of all time. The only
winter that was warmer was 1881-1882 with an average temperature of 23.2
degrees. There are two other El Nino years in the top 10 mildest
winters: 1986-1987 (4th) and 1982-1983 (7th). Of the 10 mildest Februaries,
4 are El Nino years: 1998 (1st), 1987 (2nd), 1992 (7th), and 1983 (9th).

The warm conditions were also dry until the last two days, and
they were also snowless. Only 0.6 inch fell in St. Cloud this February,
the 5th lowest total on record and the lowest in 34 years. However, heavy
rain on the 27th pushed the precipitation for the month above normal.
February's low snowfall allowed the winter 1997-1998 snowfall to drop
more than 4 inches below normal. However, thanks to heavy snowfall in November
and January, the seasonal snowfall for 1997-1998 is within an inch of normal.

The end of the winter marks also the end of the statistically
significant El Nino trends for St. Cloud, so what's left during this
cold season is anyone's guess (preferably not mine).

===========================================================================
FEBRUARY 1998 STATISTICS        FEB 1998        NORMAL
TEMPERATURE
Average High                     35.9           24.8
Average Low                      23.2            3.8
Average Temp                     29.6           14.3
Warmest high temperature          55 on the 24th
Coldest high temperature          17 on the 4th
Mildest low temperature           40 on the 26th (record for month; see below)
Coldest low temperature            2 on the 7th
Monthly record temperatures:
   Record Warm Lows:             40 on the 25th (old record: 38 on 2/19/1899;
								   2/21/1930)
Daily record temperatures:
   Record Warm Highs:            54 on the 23rd (tied record set in 1958)
				 55 on the 24th (old record: 51 in 1931)

   Record Warm Lows:             25 on the 10th (tied record set in 1918)
				 35 on the 16th (old record: 34 in 1899)
				 35 on the 17th (old record: 34 in 1916)
				 34 on the 18th (old record: 33 in 1930)
				 34 on the 22nd (old record: 32 in 1981)
				 37 on the 23rd (old record: 33 in 1930)
				 40 on the 25th (old record: 34 in 1951)
				 38 on the 26th (old record: 35 in 1958)

MELTED PRECIP (in)               0.74            0.63
Most in 24 hours                 0.55 on the 27th

SNOWFALL (in)                    0.6             7.0
Most in 24 hours                 0.5 on the 27th
Seasonal Snowfall (Oct-Feb)      32.7            33.3

WINTER STATISTICS               WINTER 1997-8   NORMAL
Average Temperature               23.0           12.1
Total Melted Precip(in)           1.81           2.20
Snowfall (in)                     21.4           26.0


     ST. CLOUD TEMPS--FEBRUARY  (118 YEARS; AVG = 13.8 F; SDEV =  6.0 F)

	WARMEST                          COLDEST

     29.6 F  1998 <--WARMEST EVER     -4.4 F  1936
     28.9 F  1987                      3.7 F  1904
     27.2 F  1954                      4.3 F  1887
     27.0 F  1931                      4.3 F  1917
     26.4 F  1882                      4.6 F  1989
     25.7 F  1984                      4.9 F  1885
     24.6 F  1992                      5.1 F  1979
     24.2 F  1915                      5.4 F  1967
     23.8 F  1983                      5.6 F  1899
     23.2 F  1930                      5.6 F  1923

     ST. CLOUD TEMPS--WINTER    (117 YEARS; AVG = 12.9 F; SDEV =  4.2 F)

	WARMEST                          COLDEST

     23.2 F  1881-1882                 1.4 F  1935-1936
     23.0 F  1997-1998 <---2ND WARMEST 1.7 F  1886-1887
     22.7 F  1930-1931     ON RECORD   3.9 F  1978-1979
     22.2 F  1986-1987                 4.2 F  1884-1885
     21.5 F  1920-1921                 5.5 F  1887-1888
     20.0 F  1918-1919                 6.2 F  1916-1917
     19.9 F  1982-1983                 7.7 F  1981-1982
     19.3 F  1943-1944                 7.8 F  1977-1978
     19.3 F  1989-1990                 7.9 F  1917-1918
     19.3 F  1907-1908                 7.9 F  1964-1965


     ST. CLOUD TEMPS--FEWEST LOW TEMPERATURES OF 0 DEG OR LOWER
       
       FEBRUARY                           COLD SEASON

     0       1987                       14  1997-1998 
0 1998 17 1986-1987 2 1954 22 1918-1919 3 1926 22 1941-1942 3 1935 29 1908-1909 4 1930 29 1990-1991 4 1938 30 1931-1932 4 1984 30 1982-1983 4 1992 31 1937-1938 5 (5 YEARS) 31 1943-1944 ST. CLOUD SNOWFALL--FEBRUARY ( 99 YEARS; AVG = 7.1 IN; SDEV = 5.4 IN) SNOWIEST DRIEST 21.6 IN 1970-1971 0.0 IN 1920-1921 21.5 IN 1908-1909 TRACE 1900-1901 20.6 IN 1921-1922 TRACE 1901-1902 20.0 IN 1961-1962 0.5 IN 1963-1964
19.9 IN 1918-1919 0.6 IN 1997-1998 19.5 IN 1938-1939 1.0 IN 1911-1912
18.8 IN 1936-1937 1.0 IN 1959-1960
16.5 IN 1952-1953 1.2 IN 1905-1906 15.9 IN 1990-1991 1.5 IN 1986-1987 15.6 IN 1950-1951 1.7 IN 1982-1983

Historic temperature data provided courtesy of the Saint Cloud National Weather Service Office, and NOAA/NWS
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Send comments to: raweisman@stcloudstate.edu