I left the snowcovered hills of Wisconsin this afternoon and arrived back in Southern Minnesota, and what a stunningly beautiful day to arrive back! As I left, the snow that fell in the New Years system was melting fast as the temperature was 44.F in my Clayton,WI yard. As I went south it became warmer and eventually I drove right out of the area covered in snow just past the Wisconsin boarder. The cause of the extreme warmth across the region was a warm westerly airmass and sunshine combined with snowless ground. This allowed temperatures to rise way above expected. Records were shattered today across the entire Upper Midwest with near 50.F temps seen as far north as Duluth and the earliest 60.F temp was seen in Western Minnesota. Records here in Southern Minnesota were broken by as much as 10 degrees! The highs here were 50 to 55.F, here in our Rochester yard it was 57.F which is way beyond the normal high of 24.F. Officially the Rochester Airport hit 55.F which broke the old record of 45.F set back in 1930.
When I arrived back and checked on the gardens I was surprised to see the Crocus had begin leafing out as if it was a week in late March! With weather this mild it is up to impossible to keep the spring bulbs from sprouting. If it were to stay warm for another week or two, these would certainly be blooming by then! This is the absolute earliest I've seen Crocus leaf out happen. Hopefully cooler weather will arrive soon to stop their growth and put them back into dormancy before they bloom.
Records were broken at the Rochester Airport, Winona, Preston and Austin today. The warmest area temp was confined to inner city Rochester which had a high of 57.F The coolest station was a super mild 48.F which was seen in Red Wing, where there is still a little snowcover.
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