May 2006 Saint Cloud Weather Summary

Hottest May Weekend in 72 Years Pushes St. Cloud Spring to Extremes

Spring 2006 Ties for 6th Warmest in Saint Cloud Weather Records

May and Spring 2006 Saint Cloud Weather Summaries

The oppressive Memorial Day weekend not only helped change May 2006 from a cool month to a hot month. It also topped off the sixth warmest spring in Saint Cloud history. May 2006 had an average temperature of 59.3°F, 2.9°F above normal. The above normal ranking was mainly due to very warm weather during May 23-31. Going into the final 9 days of the month, May 2006 had averaged 53.6°F (avg. high of 63.7°F; avg. low of 43.4°F), 1.5°F colder than normal, a marked contrast to April. On May 21 and 22, Saint Cloud experienced its first two frosts since April 25 with lows of 32°F both days. That pushes St. Cloud's number of low temperatures of freezing or colder to 163 days, the 9th fewest on record. In the past 65 years, only the cold seasons of 1997-1998 and 2005-2006 have had 163 or fewer days with a frost.

From May 23 on, however, the temperature was never colder than 53°F and the high temperature broke 80 degrees on 8 of the 9 days. These 9 days ending May averaged 73.4°F (avg. high of 86.3°F; avg. low of 60.4°F), more than 13 degrees above normal and nearly 20 degrees warmer than the first part of May.

The warm May average temperature pushed Saint Cloud's spring (March 1 - May 31) average temperature to 47.1°F, 4.2°F above normal. Thus, Spring 2006 tied 1902 as the 6th warmest spring in the 126 years of Saint Cloud temperature records.

Hottest May Weekend in 72 Years

During that holiday weekend, the high temperature topped 90°F on the 27th, 28th, and 29th. One daily record high was tied on the 29th (92°F), but the mercury topped off at 98°F on the 28th. The only reason that Memorial Day Sunday didn't set a record high is that the earliest 100 degree high in Saint Cloud history was set on May 29, 1934. However, my hot summer of 2005 final report shows that 98 degrees ties for the hottest annual high we've seen in Saint Cloud since 1990, the last time the temperature broke 100 degrees. In fact, May 28th was only the 5th day we've seen with a high of 98 degrees in the past 16 years. The Minnesota State Climatology Office has issued a report about statewide records set during the Memorial Day weekend.

Does this necessarily mean a very hot summer coming? Only two years ago, an April high (92°F on April 28, 2004) stood as the warmest day of the year until mid-June and was one of only 4 days with a high in the 90's.

Three consecutive days with a high of at least 90°F qualifies as a heat wave. So, Memorial Day Weekend 2006 stands out as only the May heat wave in Saint Cloud weather records. There was a longer heat wave that lapped into June in 1934, with six consecutive days of 90°F highs, 4 of which took place in May. May 2006 also is the first May since 1934 to have at least three 90-degree days May 1934 is tied with 1900 with 5 90-degree highs.

In addition, the low temperature of 71 degrees on the 28th broke the old warm low for May 28 of 68 degrees, set in 1934. Saint Cloud's historic 70-degree lows table shows that May 28 was the first low at least 70 degrees since 1939. Also, May 28th's average temperature (average of high and low temperatures) ended up at 85 degrees, breaking the daily record warm average temperature of 84 degrees, set in 1934. Our average temperature also tied May 31, 1934, for the hottest May average temperature ever.

May and Spring Rainfall

While the beginning of May wrapped up one of the longest rainy streaks ever to hit Saint Cloud during the spring, the total May rainfall in Saint Cloud was only 1.59 inches, 1.38 inches below normal. This brought the Spring Saint Cloud total rainfall to 6.59 inches, only .01 inch less than normal. Despite the dry month, May 2006 had measurable rainfall on 13 of the 31 days, including a streak of 6 straight days of measurable rainfall during May 9-14. Only .71 inch fell during that period. That was the longest consecutive day of rainfall streak since June 5-10, 2003 and the longest May streak since 1982. Early May also completed a streak of 5 straight days of measurable rain, described in detail below.

Wet End of April

The bulk of the rain, not only for May, but for the whole spring fell during the 5 days between April 28 and May 2. The Saint Cloud Airport had the most rain in central Minnesota this period with 3.44 inches of rain and generally 2-3 1/2 inches between Saint Cloud and the Twin Cities area. Still, this was far from a record rainfall. ith 3.44 inches so far.

 This rain, which accounted for more than 55% of Saint Cloud's spring rainfall, was still far short of a record single storm rainfall or even two recent heavy April rainfalls: 3.89 inches set on April 23, 2001, and 3.54 inches April 15-16, 2003. The Minnesota State Climatology Office has issued a report on the wet end of April, which pushed the Twin Cities to the second wettest April ever.

Having all of our rainfall in one short period has resulted in some quite dry conditions developing in central Minnesota during the past three weeks. This has been worsened by the hot temperatures, which increase the loss of water due to evaporation. The heavy rainfall on June 5 did ease conditions some (.72 inch at Saint Cloud Airport) and it appears that we will have a bit better shot at rain for the rest of the week.

    May 2006 Statistics

Spring (Mar. 1-May 31) 2006 Statistics