Balmy Winter in the Twin Cities 2011-2012

The balmy winter of 2011-12 continues to march on. Relatively cooler weather moved in for the second week of February and dropped the average monthly temperature a bit. The meteorological winter average is 26.3 degrees, or fourth warmest winter on record. February marked the ninth month in a row in the Twin Cities that has finished above normal in the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities Warmest Meteorological Winters

Top Meteorological Winter (Dec-Feb) average temperatures (Twin Cities 1872-2012) Rank Year Avg. Temp -------------------------- 1.) 1877-1878 29.0 F 2.) 1930-1931 26.9 F 3.) 2001-2002 26.8 F 4.) 2011-2012 26.3 F 5.) 1997-1998 25.9 F 6.) 1986-1987 25.8 F 7.) 1982-1983 24.0 F 8.) 1991-1992 23.5 F 9.) 1943-1944 23.5 F 10.) 1920-1921 23.2 F 11.) 1999-2000 23.1 F

The Twin Cities International Airport has only seen three nights that have dipped below zero for the winter of 2011-2012. That means that this winter has the second fewest sub-zero nights on record back to 1872. The coldest Minimum Temperature of the 2011-2012 season so far in the Twin Cities is -11. This is in a five-way tie for the third warmest winter minimum. The warmest winter minimum is -3 in the winter of 2001-02.

Twin Cities Least Number of Below Zero Minimums in a Winter

Rank Year Number of days below zero (Twin Cities 1872-2012) ------------------------------- 1.) 2001-2002 2 2.) 2011-2012 3* 3.) 1877-1878 4 4.) 1930-1931 5 5.) 2005-2006 6 6.) 1881-1882 7 6.) 1986-1987 7 8.) 1982-1983 8 9.) 1920-1921 9 10.) 1997-1998 10 As of February 27

January finished the 8th warmest in the Twin Cities with records going back to 1872. The average temperature was 23.3 degrees, or 7.7 degrees above normal. The average temperature for December 2011 and January 2012 together was 25.6 degrees, making it the 4th warmest December and January on record for the Twin Cities with only 1877-78, 2001-02 and 1913-14 being warmer. The average for 1877-78 was 27.8 degrees.

Twin Cities Daily records broken or tied during December and January.

Twin Cities Daily records broken or tied during December and January. Date Record Value Old Rec. Year ---------------------------------------------------- Dec. 26, 2011 Maximum 52 51 1936 Jan. 06, 2012 Warm Low 37 35 1928 Jan. 09, 2012 Maximum 49 49 2002 (tie) Jan. 09, 2012 Warm Low 37 34 2002 Jan. 10, 2012 Maximum 52 49 1990