January 2019 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

January 2019 St. Cloud Weather Summary

For most of winter's first month and a half, the coldest of the cold air in the Northern Hemisphere was kept locked up in Greenland, Siberia, and the Arctic Ocean, only occasionally reaching to Hudson Bay. However, leaving that cold air in a region with no sunshine for an extra month allows the cold air to get colder. So, when and if that air gets pushed into the middle latitudes, the impact could be greater.

Arctic Plunge Produces Coldest Day in 10 Years

During the second half of January, that arctic air got pushed into south central and southeastern Canada, the Northern Plains, Great Lakes, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. The final 15 days of January averaged -2.8 degrees (avg. high 6.7 degrees; low -12.4 degrees), which would rank as the 6th coldest January in St. Cloud records if it held up for the whole month. This included St. Cloud's first two lows of -30 or colder since January 16, 2009, a -34 low on January 30 that was the coldest temperature in 10 years, three straight days when the temperature stayed below zero, the 7th coldest high temperature in St. Cloud records (-17 on January 30), and 15 straight days with a low of zero or colder.

There were three surges of arctic air from north central Canada. The peak of the second one on January 27 produced a low temperature of -49 in Kabetoagama, Minnesota and -21 in St. Cloud with several area stations going below -30. Temperatures in parts of northwestern Ontario were as cold as -51. At the peak of the third surge on January 31, Cotton in northeastern Minnesota had a low of -53 degrees while Kabetogama hit -50. Closer to us, Brainerd had a low of -43, while Long Prairie and Little Falls hit -36. At the St. Cloud Regional Airport, the low temperature was -34, as noted above.

There were strong winds along with the third wave of cold, which hit on January 29 and 30. The coldest wind chill in central Minnesota was -63 in Alexandria with wind chills as low as -59 in St. Cloud.

One person died in Rochester, MN due to overnight exposure last Sunday and there was a cold weather death on the campus of the University of Iowa.

"Coldest in a Generation?" Not Really in Central Minnesota

The cold outbreak was portrayed as the coldest in a generation, but this was a bit oversold. The 16 days of consecutive lows of zero or colder (including Feburary 1), ties for the 15th longest in St. Cloud records. However, there were 20 straight days with a low of zero or colder in 1996. The record is 37 straight days in 1936 from January 17 through February 22. The longest streak with temperatures remaining at zero or colder all day was 8 days in January 28 through February 4 of 1899. The 1996 cold outbreak produced 5 straight days of such cold. There have now been 5 days with a low of -20 or colder, nearly the average for the entire season.

Dec-Jan Temperature Still Above Average

However, the average temperatures for the entire month of January was 8.0 degrees, 3.6 degrees colder than average. Why relatively mild? During the first 16 days of January, the average temperature was 19.5 degrees (high 28.9 degrees, low 10.1 degrees), 11.6 degrees above average. That would have ranked as the 10th mildest January on record if it had held up. The combination of December and January is still averaging 1.1 degrees warmer than average since the first three-quarters of those two months were so mild.

Below Average Snowfall and Precipitation

The bulk of January was snow-free, but there were 6.1 inches of snow in the last 11 days of the month. The most was 4.1 inches from January 26 through 28. This extra snow blew around quite a bit in the third arctic surge, which led to drifting and icy conditions. St. Cloud missed the biggest snowfall of the month, narrow band of heavy snow on January 18, 2019 with 10-12 inches of new snow in parts of southeastern Minnesota.

For the season, St. Cloud has only 21.2 inches of snow, 6.3 inches below average. Of course, we know from last winter and the winters of 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 that we can get a lot of snow in the February through April period.

The total moisture in the snow was 0.41 inch, 0.24 inch below average.

When Was It Really Cold? 1996!

The cold blast of late January through early February 1996 is still by far the coldest period in recent St. Cloud records. 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 February 2, 1996, Tower also set the Minnesota record cold temperature with a low of -60.