January 2010 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

  The roller coaster weather pattern which has affected St. Cloud since last summer continued in January 2010 with three major shifts in the weather. The average January temperature ended up being 9.7°F, 0.9°F above normal, but it was the average of three extreme periods.

Frigid First 10 Days

The first 10 days of January were extraordinarily cold and dry (average temperature of -3.1°F, 11.7°F colder than normal). The only sub-zero high of the winter so far was recorded on January 2 along with the only two lows colder than -20°F. In comparison, last year had 12 days colder than -20 (two colder than -30) by the end of January.

Mid-January Thaw With Heavy Rain, Not Snow

Then, January 11-25 featured warm weather (average temperature of 20.5°F, 12.2°F warmer than normal). Eight days had highs in the 30's with 3 above freezing highs. Towards the end of this January thaw, there was a storm on January 21-25 which accounted for all of the precipitation during the entire month. Before this storm, there had been no precipitation since the Christmas week storm that ended on December 27. This storm produced 0.72 inch of melted precipitation, the total for the entire month of January and within 0.04 inch of normal. The heaviest precipitation of this storm set a new daily record for January 23 precipitation with 0.50 inches falling. About a quarter inch of the precipitation fell in the form of freezing rain in St. Cloud with up to half an inch of freezing rain in northern Benton County. However, only 0.9 inch of the precipitation fell as snow. That was the only snowfall of the month, placing January 2010 as the 5th lowest January snowfall and the least snow since since 1990. The late January storm produced over a foot of snow in the Arrowhead, a period of 4-6 inches of snow followed by high winds that closed roads in southern and southwestern Minnesota.

Not Quite Back to the Arctic Last Week

On the backside of the late January storm, colder air moved in (average temperature of 2.1°F, 8.1°F colder than normal), producing 6 low temperatures of zero or colder, but wasn't as cold as the start of the month.

Last Four Months Each in 10 Most Extreme Snowfalls, But on Opposite Sides

The snowfall pattern since the late fall has been proof of this odd period of weather since the late summer. October ended up tying for the 10th snowiest October with 2.5 inches, then November was one of only 13 Novembers with no measurable snowfall in St. Cloud. December produced 18.2 inches, the 7th snowiest December on record, and now we have the 5th least snowy January.

Even though it's Groundhog Day, the snowfall pattern continued that seen in the past two winters. There was a lot of December snow in both years, but total snowfall dropped below normal during a relatively snowless January. However, the past two winters as well as the winter of 2006-2007 all had heavy snowfall from late February through April (27.1 inches out of 31.8 total inches in 2006-2007; 36.0 inches out of the 52.2 inches total in 2007-2008; 22.8 inches out of 53.9 total inches in 2008-2009). At this point, the St. Cloud seasonal snowfall is 21.6 inches, 7.2 inches below normal, but we'll see if we catch up.

Large Snowpack Shows Potential for Spring Red River Floods

The deep snow cover leftover from December, as seen on the NWS NOHRSC Upper Midwest snow depth chart, could cause another spring of problems along the Red River. The early outlook for the spring snowmelt again from the National Weather Service's North Center River Forecast Center shows a high probability of moderate flooding along the Red River, but everything depends on the rate of snowmelt beginning next month