Winter finally arrives to southeastern Minnesota. It arrived with cold temps, slick roads, gusty winds, and 2 to as much as 5" of snow!

Winter scene from a Rochester park. January 12th 2012

As odd as this is to say, winter has finally arrive to Southeastern Minnesota in the sense that this is the first time we've had a snowpack lasting more then one day since well before Christmas! two things were really noticed today, and that's the snow and the much colder temperatures. After it was 57.F on Tuesday, Today we had a cold day with highs in the 10s along with snow and blowing snow. To top it off we had gusty northwest winds which was persistent through the day which made wind chills even colder. At my location I had 3.0" of snow and the high was 18.F which was nearly 40 degrees colder then Tuesday! Today had a real wintery look and feel to it for the 1st time in many weeks here in Minnesota. The newly accumulated snow caused quite a few issues on the roads as car accidents were reported across Rochester, and across much of the area.

Haze caused by falling snow January 12th 2012

This snow has a particularly odd sense to it. The snowflakes were very small and frequent, giving the sky a hazy appearance all day. Visibilities were even fairly reduced at times. This snow was easily blown around by wind which made for a fair amount of blowing and drifting. As I talked about above, the snow did cause a few travel issues across the area but most just took it slow and got to there destination without problems. Most of the area got at least some new snow, but the areas that got the most snow was confined to the far east, where over 5" were reported in eastern Winona County! The further west you got the less snow was seen. Actually there is a fairly sharp cut off line from where the heavier amounts occurred compared to the area that got nothing but light amounts. That cutoff line caused lesser amounts to be seen in Western Goodhue, Dodge and Mower counties. The cause of the snow was a storm system that broad very widespread snow to all of the eastern half of the Upper Midwest. Our area was on the Northwestern fridges of the main precip area. It will warm up this weekend, but should stay cool enough to keep most of the snowcover on the ground, and we may in fact add to the snowcover on Saturday! Then it looks much colder after that.

Snowfall Reports

Minnesota City 5.20"
Winona 5.0"
 Rushford 4.0"
Lanesbro 4.0"
Preston 3.90"
Spring Valley 3.70"
Altura 3.40"
Kellong 3.0"
 West Downtown Rochester-(My Sta) 3.0"
Wabasha 2.0"
Byron 1.60"
Elgin 1.50"
Austin 0.70"

Sigificant cooldown with snow and wind tonight and Thursday, Some could be breifly heavy with arctic air settles in Thursday. Updated X1

Regional weather view.

A  significant change is in store for the Upper Midwest. It will go from a very mild pattern to way more winter-like for the middle part of this week. A storm system will impact the region Wednesday and bring snow, and it has the chance to bring significant snowfall to areas shaded in orange along with strong winds. The models show a low pressure system developing remaining stationary and even moving west before moving out. Arctic Air will follow behind this storm system putting everyone in a deep freeze for the end of this week.

Local and Metro views

Note: Changes have been made, I've uped snowfall amounts for central areas and expanded the 2-4" totals west slightly as the model continues to show a westward shift.

Winter is about to make a strong come back to our area as Significantly colder air arrives will start to arrive this evening with snow, some briefly heavy along with strong gusty winds. Snow will start tonight and continue into Thursday as a strong low pressure spreads precip westward. One wave will come with the of the front, which will deliverer around an inch of snow. There may be a brief break in the snow before more snow develops from that stronger system passing to our east.  

Snow Accumulations

Right now it looks like with 2-4" will accumulate for the eastern areas like Winona and Preston which is where the most will fall out of this system. Further west between 1-3" will fall in Rochester and Red Wing. Farthest west 1-2" will fall. There will be some blowing and drifting with this as winds will be strong out of the northwest. One thing sure is significantly colder air will arrive and be settled in by Thursday, highs will struggle to get out of the low 10s for highs and lows will fall into the lower single digits, this real cold weather will last through Friday. Then It will warm up slightly for the weekend

Wednesday, Cooler, Increasing clouds, and increasing winds in the evening. Snow developing towards nightfall, some could briefly be heavy at times.  Highs in the upper 30s Wednesday Night, Windy and cold, Snow, some could be briefly moderate or heavy. with lows in the mid 10s

Thursday, Cold! Windy with cold wind chills and blowing and drifting snow. Light to moderate snow through the day. Total snow accumulations 1-4" entire area. Highs in the mid 10s. Thursday Night, Clear and cold with lows in the mid single digits. 

Friday, Chilly but not as breezy. Cloudy with highs in the mid 10s. Friday Night, Mostly cloudy with lows in the upper single digits.

Looking Ahead

  The big story in the looking ahead forecasting, is the much more seasonable temps with multiple chances at snow systems the model shows coming in starting the 18th lasting through the last week of January. Could this be the start of a much cooler and snowier pattern for the Upper Midwest? Only time will tell.

Record highs today as temps rise into the mid to upper 50s once again.

West Downtown neighborhood January 10th 2012

Another beautifully mild day and sunny with highs in the mid to upper 50s and a low above freezing occurred here in Southeastern Minnesota! Today was a day that felt much like spring and nothing like winter with a high of 57.F at my location! Birds were signing and many were out walking around without coats, and some were in short sleeves! It was nice enough that teachers at my college did classes outside today instead of remaining indoors. Southerly winds, a strengthening sun and lack of snow cover continue to feed what has become an extremely mild start to January. Everyday since the month has started has been above freezing accept 2, in fact only 3 days have even been in the 30s! The rest of the days have been in the 40s or 50s. The average high for this time of year is 24.F and the average low is around 10.F

Crocus sprouts January 10th 2012

The Crocus from last week are progressing along nicely as continued warmth has allowed them! Now they will hopefully be buried under some insulating snowfall, which will keep them dormant until our real spring arrives.

January 10th highs

Record highs were broken again today, this time at Austin, The Rochester Airport, Winona and Preston. The highest temperature in the area occurred in inner city Rochester, which had a high just shy of 60.F. The coolest reading was from Preston with a high of 51.F

Is it January or March? Record warmth today. Highs shattered today as highs rose to near 60.F in some areas. Crocus have begun to leaf out!

Front yard view Rochester,MN January 5th 2011

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.

Sprouting January Crocus

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.

 Highs seen today.

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.

Very mild weather weather to end the week, Sunshine and upper 40s for highs Thursday/Friday. It does not get much better then this in January!

Regional weather view.

A very un typical pattern continues to influence the Upper Midwest, instead of arctic airmass's and snow, the region continues to have a mild winter more typical of Southern states! Highs on Thursday will be in the mid 60s in parts of Iowa, to as warm as the upper 40s in Southern Minnesota. Highs will even be in the 40s across Wisconsin. Sunshine will be abundant through the end of the week for most areas.

Local weather view.

After last weeks wind and chilly temps, we can expect a beautiful stretch of weather, which is anything like January like! The end of this week will feature lots of sunshine everyday, and clear warm nights. Temperatures will be way above normal, the lack of snowcover and rising sun angle will allow temperatures as warm as the upper 40s on Thursday, and possibly again on Friday. A couple warm spots and inner city Rochester does have a shot at 50. Otherwise we can expect mid 30s for highs Saturday and Sunday with lows in the low 30s to upper 20s all of rest of the upcoming nights. Enjoy the weather, it seriously does not get much better then this for January.







Thursday, Very warm! sunny and mild with light winds. Highs in the upper 40s. Thursday Night, mild clear skies lows in the low to mid 30s.

Friday,Very warm sunny and mild. Highs in the mid to upper 40s. Friday Night, mild lows in the upper 20s.

Saturday, Sunny and a bit cooler, highs in the mid 30s. Saturday Night, clear skies lows in the mid 20s.

Sunday, Mostly sunny light winds. Highs in the mid 30s. Sunday Night  clear skies lows in the low 20s.

Looking Ahead

Next week will continue to start of mild and pleasant.  Then by midweek the pattern changes significantly. A strong cold front pushes through bringing a shot of snowfall with it. Friday we are in the middle of a arctic airmass, lasting through that weekend. After that we have a couple of shots of snowfall from clipper systems and temperatures will remain much cooler then they have been which will be more seasonable as we pass through January 20th More on this later.

2011 Yearly extreames at Rochester.

2011 was a year of extremes across Southeastern Minnesota. Everything from extreme heat, fairly cold temps, to heavy rain and drought were experienced. This post will take a quick look at yearly extremes at Rochester. Becuase my station is too new, all the data was either gathered by me from an online search, or from NWS La Crosse from the airport.

Overview.

The Winter of 10 into 2011 was cool and snowier then normal, This cool and snowy pattern lead into spring. and a long lasting Winter. The cool pattern finally broke in May. Then it went to a warm and stormy mid summer season, with very heavy rains and waves of severe storms every other week in July. There was also 1 very hot day over 100.F in the month of June then a significant heat wave in July with 4 days in the mid to upper 90s. After about Mid July it dried out significantly, this paved the way for a very mild and dry fall, 60 degree temperatures were still being experienced in November, and 50s were seen as late as mid December. This lead to a brown Christmas and as the year ended on New Years, the ground was still bare.

Weather information recorded Rochester International Airport-7 miles south of the city.

Temperatures

The year over all ended out above average for temperatures  by a little under 1 degree. High Temps: The hottest temperatures reported was 101.F on June 7th, (warmer temps were reported in inner city), The warmest month on average was July with an average high of 84.F which is 5 degrees above normal. Low Temps: The coldest temperature reported was -22.F on January 21st. The coldest month on average was January with an average high of 19.F which is slightly less then 1 degree below normal.

Precipitation

The year ended drier them normal. Rainfall: The total rainfall for the year was 27.76" which is 5.26" below normal. The wettest month of average was June when 5.20" of rain fell which is 1.02" above normal, The driest month was November when 0.38" of rain fell, which is 1.53" below normal.Snowfall: Snowfall for the 2010-2011 season was 70.50" which is 18.0" above normal. The snowiest month was December when 41.30" of snow fell which is 28.0" above normal. The highest snow depth was 29.0" in December.

Wind

The highest wind gust observed was 58MPH from the Northwest in a severe thunderstorm on July 1st 2011, which done damage in the city. 

Thanks for viewing my writeup on the yearly extremes. I look forward to future years when I can compare my station to the airport!

For more yearly extremes and a very good detailed report on weather stories of 2011 visit the La Crosse NWS page located HERE

New Years sigificant wind with storm causing minor damage December 31st- January 1st then info in comparence to the same storm here in Western Wisconsin!

Image from KCCT Skycam showing the lack of snowcover continuing January 2nd

Over the New Years Holiday weekend a strong storm system hit bringing high winds which took down trees and ripped shingles off homes. It also brought much cooler weather nearly 20 degrees cooler then on Friday. The cause of the high wind was from a strong area of low pressure that was gathering strength as it moved into the area of the UP of Michigan. The strong gradient created strong Northwest winds over 45MPH at most stations in the area, in one case at Grand Meadow a significant wind gust of 55MPH was recorded. At the Rochester International airport the highest gust was 49MPH. The winds did cause a few issues taking down some branches, even a few trees. A report of a large tree coming down came in from Austin as a result of the wind. Precip in this storm started off as rain as temps were in the upper 30s, then ended as light snow. Unfortunately precip minimal in the storm system across the entire area coming out to less then one 10th of an inch at most locations. Rochester has 0.02" of rain when the temp was 37.F and just over quarter inch of snow once the temp dropped into the mid 30s, becuase of the lack of snowfall, blowing snow did not cause problems as was at first expected.


Strongest wind gusts observed

 Grand Meadow 55MPH
Canton 50MPH
Rochester Airport 49MPH
Eyota 49MPH
Dexter 49MPH
Preston 49MPH
 Kellogg 48MPH
Austin 48MPH  
Winona 44MPH
Cannon Falls 43MPH
Dodge Center 43MPH

Reports

Austin 8 inch diameter dead tree uprooted

Blowing and drifting snow January 1st 2012 Clayton,WI

Because I am still in my hometown of Clayton, Wisconsin for winter break, I decided to post the storms effects here at my home. The storm was quite a bit different here approximately 115 miles north of Rochester.

 Large snowflakes falling December 31st 2011

Instead of rain changing to snow the temp was around 32.F so it was sleet then it quickly changed to heavy snow. The flakes were very large at times, the largest I've seen in a long time! A 4.0" of snow accumulated. While the winds were calm at first during the time the snow was falling, overnight the winds picked up and were strong through January 1st. We had wind driven moderate snow showers and blowing snow to go along with this. While the winds were not as strong as around Southern Minnesota, my gauge had a gust of 35MPH.