Mild spring weather setting records

Welcome to the earliest spring in Minnesota history.

That's the way it slices if you look at some of the data this spring. As Rod Serling would say in The Twilight Zone; "submitted for your approval."

*The earliest recorded ice out in history for several northern Minnesota lakes

New ice out records for lakes with more than 40 years of record.

Lake-County-New Record-Previous Record-Years of Data

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Bemidji Beltrami 4-6-2010 4-11-1975,00 73

Fall St. Louis 4-2-2010 4-10-1945 60

Itasca Clearwater 4-3-2010 4-9-1981 69

Leech Cass 4-6-2010 4-9-1945 75

Shagawa St. Louis 4-3-2010 4-14-1998 45

Vermilion St. Louis 4-6-2010 4-10-1945 91

Rainy Koochiching 4-10-2010 4-13-1998 80

*The Twin Cities had a snowless March for the first time in the modern record (1891-2010) and only the 3rd time in recorded history.

*The Twin Cities recorded the 4th warmest March on record with an average temperature of 41.0 degrees.

*Duluth is enjoying the warmest start to April ever on record. The monthly average temperature so far is 44.7 degrees. That's 10 degrees above average. Duluth has enjoyed 8 days this month with a daily high temperature at or above 60 degrees. The average high for Duluth today is just 47 degrees.

*The Twin Cities is running 10.5 degrees above average so far in April.

When you add up the consistently mild temperatures, early ice out and record lack of "spring" snowfall you have what may be the earliest and warmest Minnesota spring on record by many measures.

We're half way through meteorological spring (March-May) this week. The weather maps are hinting at above average temperatures for the next 10 days.

It will be interesting to see where this spring ranks as we head toward (an early?) summer in June.

PH