January 2014 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

January 2014 St. Cloud Weather Summary

Relentless Cold Ranks 9th in December-January Combined

The relentless cold weather produced a few more breaks than there were in December, but January 2014 was still pretty cold. The average temperature at the St. Cloud Regional Airport was 4.7°F, 6.9°F colder than average and 1.5°F colder than December. Still, this January was only ranked as the 35th coldest out of the 133 Januaries in St. Cloud records, only in the coldest 25% of Januaries.

The reason that January 2014 didn't rank high was the nine days with an above average temperature, including 4 straight days of at least 10 degrees above normal January 10-13. There were 5 days with a high of freezing or higher, even though the warmest temperatures often occurred at night.

The combined December-January average temperature in St. Cloud is 5.5°F, tied for 9th coldest on record with 1981-1982 and the coldest since 1983-1984.

There was only one record cold temperature tied for the entire winter: the -15°F high on January 6. This marked only the 25th day in St. Cloud history with a high of -15 or colder. The last one was Feb 2, 1996 with a high of -20, tying the coldest high in St. Cloud records. The lowest temperature in January (-24°F on January 6), still wasn't the coldest temperature of the cold season, -25°F on December 24. The previous coldest low was -29°F on January 21, 2011. The last -30°F low was -36 on Jan 16, 2009. The last -40°F low was on Feb 2, 1996.

Still, the persistent cold pushed some of the cold temperature thresholds to levels not seen since some really cold years.

While the Twin Cities were on track to see one of their 10 highest counts of sub-zero low temperatures, St. Cloud is only ranked 12th through January with 40 days. This again references the recent trend in Minnesota winters. For the most part, we've seen milder than normal winters from 1997 on. The last period of consistently colder than average winters was in the late 1970's into the early 1980's. So, this year is showing up as often the coldest of the past 15-20 years, but that doesn't mean it's been a record year.

The reason for the relentless surges of cold air is that the cold has pushed southward in several waves, rarely draining out the coldest of the cold air. When the really cold air has gotten moving, Minnesota has only been sideswiped by the core of the cold air, since the brunt of it has hit Ontario, Quebec, and southeastern Canada.

When It Was REALLY Cold..

On the other hand, the cold is far from the coldest St. Cloud has seen. Note the frigid period between January 30 and February 4, 1996, St. Cloud had the following temperatures:

Numbers in blue are daily temperature records. The -20 high on Feb 2 tied the all-time coldest high in St. Cloud. The -40 low on Feb 2 was the last time temperatures hit -40. The six straight days with a low of -30 or colder was a record. There were 20 straight days with a low of zero or colder (4th most and the most since 1979).

On Near Record Pace for Frequent Snowfall

We had a bit of a break from the frequent snowfall early in January, but certainly caught up late in the month. The January snowfall at the St. Cloud Prison was 16.8 inches, nearly 9 inches above the January average of 7.9 inches. That ranks as the 16th snowiest January since St. Cloud snow records began in 1900 and the snowiest January since 1999. The seasonal snowfall so far in 2013-2014 has been 40.8 inches, 13.6 inches above average and the 9th highest snowfall from the start of the season through January in St. Cloud records. This is also nearly double last cold season's total through January (20.7 inches), but keep in mind that last winter had the second highest Feb-Apr snowfall on record.

There were 5.7 inches on January 18, which broke the daily snowfall record of 3.5 inches in 1922 and 1935. That's the second daily snowfall record broken this winter; the other one was on December 4.

However, the pattern of frequent snowfall resumed after a short break. St. Cloud had 13 days with measurable snowfall in January. After a slow start (0.1 inch the first 12 days of January), St. Cloud had measurable snowfall on 11 of the 14 days between January 13 and 26. The 13 January days tied for 9th for the most number of January snow days (record: 18 days in 1974-1975). Through the season so far, St. Cloud has had 34 days with measurable snow, tied for the second most with 1968-1969. The most was 35 days in 1950-1951. (Recall that St. Cloud had 19 December days with measurable snowfall, which tied December 1950 for the highest in any month on record). We'd have to keep up this pace to make it to the cold season with the most snowy days: 1950-1951 with 60 days.

St. Cloud has also received snowfall of at least one inch on 14 days and snowfall of at least 2 inches on 7 days this season. Both totals are equal to the average for the entire snow season.

Precipitation Well Above Average

The January snow contained 1.34 inch of liquid, 0.69 inch above average.

Cold Likely to Continue into February

The reason for the cold and snow all winter so far has been the persistent steering wind pattern from the Arctic Ocean through the Yukon and Northwest Territories to the Great Lakes. This has allowed wave after wave of cold air to be sent this way. This pattern has actually allowed Alaska and the Yukon at times to be quite warm (Anchorage had its 4trh warmest January on record; also see Barrow on the Arctic Ocean coast, well above average from the 17th on) and this ridiculous tweet about temperatures in the 60's. Unfortunately, although there isn't any extraordinarily cold air in northern Canada right now, the forecast weather pattern continues to steer air from northern Canada into the central and eastern US for the next week with another major chunk (yellows) just missing us to the north on Friday and Saturday. In days 8-10, the colder colors (reds and yellows are getting hung up in southwestern and central Canada), but it's too early to predict any thaw. And, bringing those colder yellows into central Canada may not help us in the long run.