Northwest Minnesota weather resource.
We in northwest Minnesota have an incredible weather resource scattered throughout the region, the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) has 16 weather stations located on the Minnesota side of the Red River. Let’s take a look at data from eleven of these Minnesota NDAWN stations and the station located in Grand Forks, ND to see how this spring’s temperatures relate to normal (Figure 1).Figure 1. Locations of twelve of the weather stations in the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network. |
Many daily minimum and maximum temperatures far below normal.
The majority of the daily maximum temperatures for seven of the NDAWN weather stations were at least 5 degrees below normal during the 36 day period from April 1 through May 6, with individual daily maximums as much as 32 degrees below normal (Table 1). Fewer daily minimum temperatures were at least 5 degrees lower below normal for this same time period, although on one day at the Ada location, the daily minimum temperature was 34 degrees below normal (Table 2). One can see a graphical representation of the deviations from normal daily maximum (red lines) and minimum (blue lines) temperatures in Figures 2 and 3.Table 1. The number of days from April 1 and May 6, 2020 with daily maximum temperatures at least 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 degrees below normal and the largest daily deviation of the daily maximum temperature from normal at 12 locations in northwest MN and eastern ND
* Data can be found on the North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) Center website. |
Table 2. The number of days from April 1 and May 6, 2020 with daily minimum temperatures at least 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 degrees below normal and the largest daily deviation of the daily maximum temperature from normal at 12 locations in northwest MN and eastern ND
* Data can be found on the North Dakota Agricultural Weather
Network (NDAWN) Center website.
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Near-term forecast.
According to the National Weather Service’s near-term forecasts for daily low temperatures, at least some part of northwest Minnesota is to see below freezing temperatures tonight through next Wednesday morning (Figure 4).
Figure 4.
Minimum temperatures forecast for the nights of Friday, May 8 through Tuesday,
May 12, 2020 (Map source: National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration:
National Weather Service).
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Figure 5. Northwest Minnesota locations for which the
National Weather Service’s National Environmental Satellite, Data and
Information Service has determined the probability of spring freeze dates.
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Table 3. Spring freeze dates for Ada, Argyle, Thief River Falls, Hallock and Roseau, MN, or a 50% probability of a 36 to 16 degree temperature occurring on a date later than listed (Data source: NWS)
* Note:
Probability of observing a temperature as cold or colder, later in the spring
than the indicated date (Data source: NOAA-NWS through MN Dept. of Agriculture
website).
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How will this affect the corn, soybean or sugarbeet crops?
In casual communication with several farmers in NW MN over the last couple of days, many of those that had planned on growing corn in 2020 have already made significant progress in getting seed sown. No one had yet begun sowing soybean. For more information about how the corn, soybean and sugarbeet crops may be affected by these freezing temperatures check out this article.References
Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Final Spring/First Fall Freeze & Frost Date Probabilities. Online location of NOAA-NWS spring freeze probability data. Online. Accessed May 8, 2020. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/summaries_and_publications/freeze_date.htmlNational Weather Service. Graphical minimum temperature forecast. Online. Accessed May 8, 2020. https://digital.weather.gov/
North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network. Daily maximum and minimum temperatures. Online. Accessed May 6, 2020. https://ndawn.ndsu.nodak.edu/weather-data-daily.html