Weather Factoids I Did Not Have to Tell You About

It is dry and hot in Northwest Minnesota. How hot and how dry?  

Well, the first six months of this year are the second driest on record.  The official weather records at the NWROC date back to 1890 and only the first half of 1980 was drier (3.22" versus 3.72" of total precipitation). Since records have been kept, precipitation in the month of June has averaged 3.59".  This month's total of 1.65" was less than half of that average. 

We know that that weather is very variable in these parts of the world. After all, Minnesota has a cold continental climate and is in the transition zone between the humid eastern and dessert western part of the country.  Nevertheless, the standard deviation of this average of 3.59" of precipitation is only 0.16", meaning that you can expect that in 95% of the years the precipitation totals vary from about 3.26" to 3.91" inches if the data were normally distributed.  The precipitation totals for June are actually not quite normally distributed and skewed a bit towards wetter rather drier, with 1895 being the wettest on record with a total of 9.66" of precipitation.

The daily maximum temperatures of 104F, 101F, and 96F on June 5th, 6th, and 10th also set new records for those respective dates. Overall the number of cooling degree units was two-thirds higher and the number of heating degree units was less than half of the 30-year climate normal.

It's hot and dry.