July 2017 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Average and Dry in St. Cloud, But Different Elsewhere

July 2017 St. Cloud Weather Summary

Overall, the weather pattern turned hotter and more humid in July for much of the High Plains and the Central and even the Northern Rockies at times. However, St. Cloud often found itself on the edge of the hotter and drier air. There was more humidity, but the July rainfall totalled only 2.38 inches at the St. Cloud Regional Airport. This amount was nearly an inch below the average July rainfall of 3.31 inches. However, the dry area was very locallized over eastern Stearns County into Meeker and Wright Counties. Not far to the north, there were more than 4 inches of rain in nearly all of Douglas, Todd, and Morrison Counties, including Alexandria, Long Prairie, Little Falls, Lake Mille Lacs, and even as close to us as Rice and Royalton. About half of this strip had more than 5 inches of rain with a few spots near Mora over 8 inches. Some of the Minnesota border area in southwest Minnesota and northwestern Minnesota have been part of the much drier conditions from the central Dakotas westward into Montana. Eastern Montana has had less than 2 inches of rain during the past 3 months with much of the Dakotas only picking up less than 5 inches over the past three months. According to the Minnesota Crop Progress and Condition July 31 report, 74 percent of topsoil and 80 percent of subsoil in Minnesota are rated with either adequate or surplus moisture. (see menu of Crop Progress and Condition reports here)

The persistently dry conditions to our west has caused the area from eastern Montana into most of North Dakota and South Dakota from the Missouri River westward to be classified in the moderate to severe drought category by the National Weather Service's Drought Mitigation Center. A few areas to the north of Leech Lake and Lake Winnibigoshish rank as abnormally dry in Minnesota. Note that, since the start of the growing season ( April 1-July 25), much of the Red River Valley and Northwestern Minnesota through the Red Lake, Leech Lake, and Lake Winnibigoshish have ranked in the lowest 30 percent of growing seasons. Stearns County has been in the middle of the pack with the July heavy rainfall areas definitely among the wettest. The St. Cloud Airport has picked up 13.67 inches of rain since April 1, which is slightly above the 13.00 inch average for the 4 months, but an inch and half short since the start of June. Since the start of the year, St. Cloud has been within a quarter inch of average precipitation (15.66 inches actual, 15.79 inches average).

Frequent July Severe Weather

Unfortunately, the rain has come with a fair amount of severe weather. On July 9th, a large swath of hail covered the area to our northeast with hail as large as 4 inches in diameter in Onamia. There were also two tornadoes near Lake Crystal and Judson and over 4 inches of rain in Nicollet. Two days later, there were two tornadoes in northwestern Minnesota. The leftovers from those storms produced a line of severe thunderstorms in the early morning hours of July 12. These storms produced a swath of wind damage and hail across the Northern Twin Cities Metro area from Maple Grove to Forest Lake. A tornado did hit the Forest Lake area.

On July 17, the end of one really hot period led to thunderstorms that produced large hail between Fergus Falls, Elbow Lake, and Wadena and some wind damage, including a semi-truck blown off Hwy. 10 near New York Mills. On July 19 and 20, there was some wind damage in southwestern Minnesota, but the main problem was heavy rainfall with 5-6 inches of rain reported near LaCrescent and Wabasha. Mudslides and flooding caused problems along I-90 and US 61 in Winona and Houston Counties. The southern Twin Cities saw over 2 inches of rain. There were 2 more tornadoes in northwestern Minnesota on July 21.

St. Cloud Avoids Bulk of July Heat

Temperature-wise, parts of central and southwestern Minnesota got into extreme heat at times, but the St. Cloud area tended to either have fronts stall over us or leftover clouds from morning storms hang around. The average temperature for the entire month was a mere 70.2 degrees, within 0.1 degrees of average. There were only 2 days with a high of at least 90 degrees, on July 6 (90) and 17 (92). The later day saw highs in the upper 90's in southwestern Minnesota, including Redwood Falls, which had 7 90-degree highs in July, including 97 on July 17. St. Cloud has only seen 3 days with a high of at least 90 so far this summer and has been no higher than 92 degrees this summer so far. In comparison, Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport has seen 10 days with a high of at least 90, 5 in both June and July with the highest being 96.

While the heat will continue to hit the Rockies and all the way to the Pacific Northwest Coast this week, we are forecast to have a shot at much cooler air, even perhaps threatening a record cool high or two on Thursday and Saturday.

     July 2017 Statistics