ZSW [C M Y K] E10 Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2015

E 1 0 • VA R I E T Y • S T A R T R I B U N E • W E D N E S D A Y, J A N U A R Y 1 4 , 2 0 1 5

JANUARYIt was so cold that Minnesotans had

to call AAA to get their year started. In what was the coldest January in 20 years, the Twin Cities’ low of minus-23 on Jan. 6 was the coldest reading in 10 years and the high of minus-12 was the coldest high in nearly 18 years. Gov. Mark Dayton ordered public schools closed Jan. 6 and Jan. 7 and again on Jan. 21, 27 and 28 due to extreme wind-chills. The cold came hand-in-hand with snow. The Twin Cities saw 40 days with new snow from Dec. 2 to Jan. 26; another 6.4 inches on Jan. 30 was the deepest dump of 2014. Dur-ing the siege of early-winter cold, only one daily record temperature was set in the Twin Cities — and that was for warmth: a high of 47 on Dec. 28.

FEBRUARYThe month opened with 11 straight

days of below zero temps in the Twin Cities. The deep cold produced a plague of frozen or broken water mains and feeder lines all over the state. A Twin Cities snowfall of 4.9 inches on Feb. 17, followed by a slushy 9.9 inches on Feb. 20-21, prompted snow emergencies — the seventh of the winter in Minneapolis, the eighth in St. Paul. In Minneapolis, single-side parking remained in place more than a month, from Feb. 23 to March 27. Snow depth at Minneapolis-St. Paul Interna-tional Airport on Feb. 21 measured 24 inches, the deepest in 32 years.

The snow was followed by ice, which clamped down on roads and sidewalks. Temps plummeted below zero and stayed there. In Duluth, it

was the coldest December-through-February period in 141 years. For the Twin Cities it was the coldest in 34 years. To make us feel better, the Min-nesota Zoo offered a “Worst Winter Ever” admission discount.

MARCHMarch kicked off with three more

subzero days in the Twin Cities, including March 2, which had a low of minus-15 and a high of 3 — the coldest high on record for the date. (Strangely, it was also the only record-setting daily cold temp in the Twin Cities for the season.) Heading south didn’t help: Theilman, near Wabasha, saw 26 below March 3. By the end of March, the Twin Cities had survived a win-ter with 53 days of below-zero temps, the fifth most below-zero days in state history.

And the snow? Austin was buried with 10.5 inches of snow March 5, one of many daily snowfall records set across southern Minnesota. March 31 brought a rare event: a tornado in a county that was under a blizzard watch. The tornado near St. Leo, in Lac Qui Parle County, damaged some farm buildings.

APRIL Three days after a weather observer

measured 10 inches of new snow in downtown Minneapolis, the Twins opened their home season on April 7 — and the temperature hit 60 degrees. The next day, Iowa Lake in Martin County shook off all of its winter ice, the state’s first lake to do so in 2014.

But days later a massive snow-storm crossed the state. North Branch wound up with 20 inches on April 16-17. Duluth’s final snow — on April 30 — brought its winter total to 131 inches, third-most on record.

Rain saturated the southern half of the state during the last half of the month. New Hope had its wettest April ever, with 8.97 inches of pre-cipitation. The official Twin Cities total, 6.27 inches, was second-wettest. Statewide, April was the sixth straight cooler-than-normal month.

MAY Spring burst into Minnesota May

7-8 with heavy rain, hail and a handful of tornadoes from southwest to east central Minnesota. Princeton tallied 3.1 inches of rain May 7. On May 8, Albert Lea endured a hot flash when the temperature rose from 68 to 82 in 20 minutes just after 1 a.m., then dropped back to 63 two hours later. Continuing rain started to have an impact.

Beginning on May 9, Grays Bay dam could no longer hold back flows from Lake Minnetonka into Minne-haha Creek; that continued until July

30, a record duration. The Twin Cities got 2.25 inches of rain May 19, nearly doubling the record for the date, which had been set just the year before. An 80-degree high in the Twin Cities on May 24 was the first in 236 days. Ice floes were last seen at Duluth’s Park Point May 28 and were still drifting around Wisconsin’s Apostle Island National Lakeshore on May 30, an event unseen, some said, in 40 years.

JUNEIn this super-soaker month, the

rainiest June on record statewide, Redwood Falls gasped for air from under 14.24 inches. Up to 7 inches of rain in southwestern Minnesota June 14-15 closed Interstate 90. At the state’s northern border, the Rainy River just downstream of International Falls reached its highest crest ever on June 17, and sandbags sprouted around town.

The Twin Cities fell into the dunk tank June 19, when 4.13 inches of rain fell, making it the wettest June day ever recorded. Lake Minnetonka reached its highest level in 109 years. West River Parkway in Minneapolis was closed by a mudslide. (Repairs won’t be completed until this spring.) The Mississippi reached its highest June crest in St. Paul, forcing a revival ver-sion of the Taste of Minnesota festi-val to move from Harriet Island to Waconia. The Twin Cities saw rain on 19 April days, and the wettest April-through-June period on record, with 22.18 inches. (The old mark, set in 1908, was 18.89.)

Ultimately, 37 of Minnesota’s 87 counties were declared federal disas-ter areas, with $40 million in damage to public structures.

JULY Rain slacked off as the month

started, but rivers and lakes over-flowed again July 11, when morning storms brought 4.83 inches to Wadena and just over an inch to the Twin Cit-ies. July 21 was the hottest day of the not-so-hot year in the Twin Cities, where the high of 92 was the second and last day of 90 or above all summer. It was the fewest number of 90s since 1992, when there were none. Roches-ter and Duluth never hit 90. Nor did Pipestone and Morris, for the first time in 99 years.

AUGUSTNorthern Minnesotans were

shocked by lows of 37 degrees on Aug. 14. Could snow be far behind? Well, no. (See September.) But in the Twin Cit-ies, August was the year’s only month without any need for home heating — statistically, at least

Monthly rainfall in the Twin Cit-ies was below normal, but most of it

fell during the State Fair. Elsewhere in the state, monthly rain totals were excessive, from 6 inches and more in western Minnesota to 8.59 at Minne-sota City in southeastern Minnesota.

SEPTEMBERA hailstorm Sept. 3-4 across cen-

tral Minnesota temporarily turned the ground white in places and devastated apple trees just as they were ready for picking. St. Cloud saw nearly an inch of rain in six minutes; Onamia, which received 8.2 inches of rain in August, got 4.26 more in the storm. Frost touched the Minnesota corn belt Sept. 13. The month brought 4 to 6 inches to much of the state, but the Twin Cities stayed dry, receiving less than an inch of rain. (Normal September rainfall is 3.08 inches.)

OCTOBERTraces of snow were recorded

by the National Weather Service at Chanhassen both Oct. 3 and Oct. 4. Then a splendid October emerged — gentle and warm, with seemingly every tree transforming itself into a gallery of stunning colors. The Minne-haha Creek Watershed District closed the Grays Bay dam Oct. 20; by then Lake Minnetonka had dropped about 30 inches from the record level it had reached in June.

NOVEMBER Winter kicked in the door early,

leaving more than a foot of new snow across central Minnesota Nov. 10-11. Cambridge got 16.5 inches. The snow had a wicked accomplice: deep cold. Subzero readings reappeared across northern Minnesota Nov. 14. The Twin Cities temperature remained below freezing Nov. 10-20. Only 1880 had a longer November cold streak. The shipping season on the Mississippi River ended Nov. 20 — the earliest closing in 45 years — due to ice. The Thanksgiving Day high temperature of 10 in the Twin Cities was the lowest since 1930.

DECEMBERThe warmth found its way back.

Marshall never dropped below 46 degrees on Dec. 14, breaking a 123-year-old state record by 6 degrees. The Twin Cities saw a record high of 51 on Dec. 15. The El Niño-induced mildness also produced the gloomiest December in 52 years of record keep-ing. It also produced a green Christ-mas in the Twin Cities. But 4.2 inches of snow Dec. 26-27 was well-timed for new skis and sleds — and ushered in the season’s first snow emergencies.

Bill McAuliffe, a former metro reporter for the Star Tribune, continues to be an avid weather watcher.

M A R C H 8 : A late-winter thaw had pedestri-ans (and dogs) dodging puddles.

A P R I L 1 6 : Blizzard conditions returned, taxing tires and patience.

O C T. 1 5 : Fall, glorious fall, redeemed the three seasons before it.

Use this pathfinder toolExclude overlapping shape areafirst row, at the end

Monthly average*, (in inches)

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RAY GRUMNEY • Star Tribune

Twin Cities daily high and low temperatures, 2014

Monthly precipitation for 2014

TEMPERATURES 2014 2013

Average high 51.8° 59.9° 55.2°Average low 34.7° 41.6° 37.2°

PRECIPITATION (in inches)Total for the year 35.4 29.59 30.61Greatest in 24 hours: 4.3 inches on June 19

SNOWFALL (in inches)Total for the year 67.8 27.8 54.4Greatest in 24 hours: 8.4 inches on Feb. 20

DEGREE DAYS Heating degrees† Cooling degree 2013-14 Normal* 2014 2013 Normal*

Total for year 8,520 7,580 759 983 753

DecemberNovemberOctoberSeptemberAugustJulyApril May JuneMarchFebruaryJan.

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the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Note about heating and cooling degree days

The higher the number, the more energy required to heat or cool a building to 65 degrees. * Heating and cooling degree day normals are based on the 1981-2010, 30-year average.†Heating degree days are calculated from a July to June heating season.

Warmest month average daily temperature

Aug: 73.3°

Coldest month average daily temperatureJan. 8°

Highest recorded temperature92° on July 21

White swath shows 30-year, 1981 to 2010average high and low temperatures.

Snow fell into May and the year ended with a cold and snowy December. Half the months were colder than normal and in April the Twin Cities saw a record daily low temperature for the first time in nine years. Summer and fall were warm enough, windstorms took out thousands of trees across the state and a dry spell led to a late and drab fall color.

Line shows 30-year, 1981 to 2010 average daily temperatures.

Lowest recorded temperature -23° on Jan. 6

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SNOWFALL (snow, ice pellets, hail) PRECIPITATION (the liquid content of rain, snow, hail)

2014 snowfall

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precipitationAverage precipitation**

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Sources: National Weather Service, State Climatology Office, DNR Division of Ecological and Water Resources

1.42(0.90)

18.4(7.7)

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WettestDriest

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The year in weather

2014By BILL McAULIFFE  • Special to the Star Tribune

The 2014 weather story could be told through chatter-ing teeth. The year was bookended by cold and snow, interrupted by the wettest June in state weather records. Some may recall it, though, for its delightful autumn, when fall colors replaced cats as social media’s most popular photographic subject.

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TWIN CITIES MONTHLY DATA FOR 2014

*Snow, ice pellets or hail; T=trace amountSource: Western Regional Climate Center(Research assistance from InYoung Choi MNDNR Climatology Volunteer)

Avg. high Avg. low Avg. Diff. from Precip. Diff. from Snow* Diff. from temp. temp. temp. normal (inches) normal (inches) normal

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

2014

18.4 -2.5 8.0 -7.6 1.42 0.52 22.7 10.517.5 -0.2 8.6 -12.3 1.41 0.64 18.4 10.733.9 17.1 25.5 -7.3 0.82 -1.07 4.7 -5.651.4 34 42.7 -4.8 6.27 3.61 7 4.667.8 49.3 58.6 -0.5 4.55 1.19 0 0.078 61 69.5 0.7 11.36 7.11 0 080.6 62.5 71.5 -2.3 2.27 -1.77 0 0.081.8 64.8 73.3 2.1 2.90 -1.40 0 0.072.2 53.2 62.7 0.7 0.92 -2.16 0 0.058.4 40 49.2 0.3 1.75 -0.68 0 -0.632.4 18.5 25.4 -8.3 0.87 -0.9 9.4 0.129.6 18.9 24.3 4.81 0.86 -0.27 5.6 -6.351.8 34.7 43.3 -2.8 35.4 4.81 67.8 14.1

TWIN CITIES MONTHLY DATA FOR 2014

*Snow, ice pellets or hail; T=trace amountSource: Western Regional Climate Center(Research assistance from InYoung Choi MNDNR Climatology Volunteer)

Avg. high Avg. low Avg. Diff. from Precip. Diff. from Snow* Diff. from temp. temp. temp. normal (inches) normal (inches) normal

Jan.

Feb.

Mar.

April

May

June

July

Aug.

Sept.

Oct.

Nov.

Dec.

2014

18.4 -2.5 8.0 -7.6 1.42 0.52 22.7 10.517.5 -0.2 8.6 -12.3 1.41 0.64 18.4 10.733.9 17.1 25.5 -7.3 0.82 -1.07 4.7 -5.651.4 34 42.7 -4.8 6.27 3.61 7 4.667.8 49.3 58.6 -0.5 4.55 1.19 0 0.078 61 69.5 0.7 11.36 7.11 0 080.6 62.5 71.5 -2.3 2.27 -1.77 0 0.081.8 64.8 73.3 2.1 2.90 -1.40 0 0.072.2 53.2 62.7 0.7 0.92 -2.16 0 0.058.4 40 49.2 0.3 1.75 -0.68 0 -0.632.4 18.5 25.4 -8.3 0.87 -0.9 9.4 0.129.6 18.9 24.3 5.1 0.86 -0.27 5.6 -6.351.8 34.7 43.3 -2.8 35.4 4.81 67.8 14.1

Star Tribune photosJ U N E 1 9 : Minnehaha Creek overflowed after a record-setting one-day deluge.