Updraft: October 12, 2009 Archive

Rare Early October Snow Greets Minnesota

Posted at 8:42 AM on October 12, 2009 by Paul Huttner

Snow clad deck chairs at the Huttner Weather Lab this morning.
(Photo by Paul Huttner)

If Columbus had arrived in the new world and saw Minnesota today, he would have turned around and gone home.

An early season snow is making for difficult travel this Monday. A steady band of light to moderate snow is moving through much of southern Minnesota today. It looks like snowfall amounts will be in the 1" to 3"+ range for much of the area. There may be a few islolated 4"+ amounts by this afternoon. Though much of the snow will melt on conact with warm ground, motorists should expect slippery travel on some area roads through this afternoon.

Update 9:10am: Both Craig Edwards in Eden Prairie and Huttner in Deephaven measure 3.5" of snow on the weather lab decks.

Snow covered landscape in Eden Prairie this morning.
(Photo by Craig Edwards)

Surface and radar reports indicate snow falling from Eau Claire all the way back to Sioux Falls this morning. Expect the low to pull east of the region this afternoon and snow should end from west to east. I expect snow will taper off in the Twin Cities this afternoon.

This much snowfall in the first half of October is rare in the Twin Cities. The most snowfall ever recorded in the first half of October in the Twin Cities is 2.5". We may break that record today.

Today's snow is just the latest round in a crazy weather month here in Minnesota. In the last month we've seen 80 degrees, lilacs blooming in September, and snow.

The combination of green grass, green leaves on the trees colorful leaves on the ground and snow is a rare one. Take it easy on the roads today. And send me your snow pictures to phuttner@mpr.org. I will post some of them this afternoon.

At least weather forecasters have plenty to talk about!

PH

A new burst of snow adds to snowfall just before 9 am.

Snow covers leaves in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Tom Weber)

Snow covered trees in Minneapolis.
(Photo by Tom Weber)

Record Snow Day: MPR listener photos

Posted at 3:26 PM on October 12, 2009 by Paul Huttner

Our rare early October snowfall is now a record snow. As of 12:40pm the NWS reports 2.4" at Twin Cities Airport. This sets a new daily snowfall record for October 12th. The previous record was 2.0" in 1959.

Check out come of these area snowfall totals:

-UM St. Paul Campus: 4.2"
-Deephaven and Chaska: 3.6"
-Waconia, Maplewood, Stillwater, and North St. Paul 3.5"
-Willmar 2.5"

Thanks for sharing the photos below.

PH

Snow covered rose in Maplewood.
(Photo by Meredith Johnson)

Snow decorates Minneaoplis back yard.
(Photo by Meg Payne Nelson)

Snowman attends North Hennepin Community College today.
(Photo by Amy Napurski)

Snap dragons decorated with snow from Saturday morning.
(Photo by Nila Hines)

Snowman seems happy to be here.
(Photo by Jason Henderson)

Is the record-setting October 12th snowfall a predictor?

Posted at 9:14 PM on October 12, 2009 by Mark Seeley (1 Comments)

Since the winter of 1880-1881, the Twin Cities climate records show a measurable amount of snowfall for the month of October approximately 33 percent of the time....one year in every three. So inevitably this leads to the question "is it a predictor of a snowy fall or exceptionally snowy winter season?"

The answer is emphatically NO! Examining the snowfall records for the Twin Cities, when measurable snowfall occurs in the month of October it is associated with an exceptionally snowy fall season only about 20 percent of the time. Similarly it is associated with an exceptionally snowy entire winter only about 25 percent of the time. This is not a strong statistical correlation.

These general historical statistics make it hard to use snowfall in October as a predictor of snowfall later in the season or throughout the winter. However, imbedded in these historical statistics are some striking examples of extremely challenging winters in Minnesota that began with significant October snowfalls. Those are the winters of 1880-1881, 1916-1917, and 1991-1992. Each of these winter seasons arguably began early with snowfalls of several inches in October. The following months brought even heavier snows and many blizzards to the Twin Cities area. The seasonal total in 1991-1992 was 84.1 inches, while that of 1916-1917 was 84.9 inches. And for 1880-1881, the famous Laura Ingalls-Wilder "long winter" on the Minnesota prairie, the Signal Corps Office in downtown Saint Paul reported an incredible 110 inches of snowfall.

You can read more about these winters in my "Minnesota Weather Almanac" still available in most bookstores.

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