Snowless brown fields from Clayton,WI December 26th
Another beautiful and warm but breezy, sunny late December day occurred across the area today, as well as here in my hometown area of Western Wisconsin, where the high was a balmy 48.F today! Today was a nice day in a string of them which seems to have continued for quite some time now, in fact Only 1 day in the past 11 has been below 32.F at Rochester! Even with our low sun angle, the lack of snowcover and strong southwest winds gusting to over 40MPH lead to well above normal temperatures again today. Highs today were 45 to 50.F across the area which is 25 degrees above normal, the average high would normal be expected to be in the mid to upper 20s with lows in the teens. Christmas day was also a warm one. It was with in the top 3 warmest at Rochester officially with a high of 41 at the Rochester Airport, The high was 42 in inner city areas.
Image from NOAA
This image shown by NOAA snows how little snowcover there is across the region taken on December 21st, the only snowcover that can be found is confined to Nothern Wisconsin and far northeastern Minnesota. Everywhere else has no snow on the ground. It is not unheard of to find a lack of snowcover in the Upper Midwest, but it is certainly very unusual for our area to be having a problem holding snowcover. This is the least snow I can remember seeing on the ground so late in December. This Christmas officially went down as a brown one for all of Southeastern Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. The last brown Christmas was 2006.
Drought Monitor
Even though this fall/ early winter has been a warm one it has been very dry. The U.S Drought monitor shows drought continuing across all of Minnesota accept the far southeast part, In our local area, the Severe Drought covers parts of Goodhue couty, Dodge County, Mower County and far Northwestern Olmstead county, including Dodge Center, Austin and West Concord. Moderate drought covers the rest of Mower county, Western Fillmore, Western Olmstead and Washaba counties, and central Goodhue county, including Rochester, Chatfield and Cannon Falls. Slight drought covers most of the rest of the our area and a small part of Winona County is not effected by any drought. Fields and lawns across the region continue to show effects to this as well, they are sitll very brown since we had a dry late summer. River levels are lowering as well. One thing for sure, many and agree, we could use a good snowcover before colder weather moves in.
Highs Tuesday
50 seemed to be the common highs temp which was experienced in Cannon Falls, Red Wing, and Lake City as well as inner city Rochester. The “coolest” was Winona at 45.F People patiently waiting continue to hold out, Eventually it will start!
Daffodils sprouts December 27th 2011
The extremely mild fall and early mild start to winter in the 40s and 50s has lead to spring bulbs to begin sprouting across many gardens across the area! Here in Wisconsin they are sprouting along the planting along the southern foundation, this is the “earliest” sprouting I’ve ever witnessed, and this is a 1st that I’ve seen them sprouting just a few days after winter started! The bulbs I planted in October at Rochester had progressed even further then the ones above before I left for winter break. The good news is people do not need to worry about minor early sprouting of spring bulbs like this, once the weather cools down, and it will, the plants will stop growing and as long as flower buds remain below ground level spring shows will not be effected. I’ve also heard some questions that people were wondering if the mild weather would allow trees to begin sprouting and I’d like to mention that have an inner sense to not start budding until the sun has reached a certain angle. So unless we have weather continue through winter, which it will not, trees and shrubs will remain dormant until the sun angle raises.
