NDAWN stations = weather data gold.
Data collected at 12 North Dakota Agricultural Weather Network (NDAWN) weather stations located throughout northwest Minnesota (Figure 1) can provide a snapshot of weather throughout the valley.
 |
| Figure 1. Twelve NDAWN weather stations in northwest Minnesota collect critical weather data all year long. |
One only need take a passing glance at the monthly rainfall totals (Figure 2) to see what made 2020 harvest and field operations so much less headache-inducing than both normal and the seemingly never-ending nightmare that was 2019. Let’s take a tour of the Red River Valley from Sabin and Ulen in Clay and Becker Counties, all the way up to Greenbush and Kennedy in Roseau and Kittson Counties, respectively. Being sure to pay attention to the different scales on each location graph’s y-axis, compare monthly normal (grey lines), 2019 (gold lines) and 2020 (maroon lines) rainfall totals. You can also easily jump to a summary of the rainfall totals for stations of interest, by scanning for bold location names in the text below.
 |
| Figure 2. Normal (grey lines), 2019 (gold lines) and 2020 (maroon lines) May through September monthly rain totals at 12 NDAWN weather stations in northwest Minnesota. (Data source: NDAWN) |
Sabin, Ulen and Ada weather summaries.
In Sabin, July and August 2020 rain totals were higher than both normal and in 2019. Things turned a bit drier in September with more than 2 inches less rain than normal and in 2019. Similarly, in Ulen while July and August had above normal rainfall, September totals were more than 1.5 inches less than both normal and in 2019. This August the Ada station registered more than 6 inches of rain, about three inches more than normal and 2 inches more than in 2019. September however, had 2 fewer inches of rain than normal and 3.5 inches less than in 2019.
Eldred, Grand Forks and Mavie station data.
The September rainfall total in Eldred was 0.3 inches, or more than 7 inches less than in 2019 and 2 inches less than normal. While Grand Forks rainfall totals hovered around normal in May through August in both 2019 and 2020, September was when the ‘wheels fell off’ in 2019, with a staggering 9.1 inches of rain. At 0.4 inches, September 2020 saw 1.5 inches less rain than normal and 8.7 inches less than in 2019. While the Mavie station saw more than 6 inches of rain this June, rain totals dropped off considerably from there with August and September totals more than 1 and 2 inches below normal, respectively. This September Mavie had 5.7 inches less rain than in 2019.
Warren, Stephen and Roseau rainfall totals.
June and July in Warren, particularly for those farming clay soils, were a bit wetter than normal (or desirable) with more than 4 inches each month. The water spigot was mostly off this September in Warren, with 0.4 inches, or 2 inches less than normal and more than 7 inches less than in 2019. July and August in Stephen were wet, with 6.9 and 6.3 inches, or 3.2 and 3.5 inches more than normal, respectively. With half an inch of rain falling this September, 2020 was nearly 2 inches below normal and more than 6 inches below 2019. While July 2020 in Roseau was a bit wetter than normal, September’s total was most striking with 1.8 inches less rain than normal and 6.6 inches less than in 2019.
Kennedy, Greenbush and Humboldt rainfall.
Kennedy was 6.3 and 3.3 inches wetter than normal this June and July, respectively. September 2020 saw 1.4 inches less rain than normal and 5 inches less than in 2019. This June and July in Greenbush saw the same trend, with a wetter than normal June (+4.7 in.) and July (+3.0 in.) and a drier than normal September (-1.5 in.). September 2020 in Greenbush was 6.8 inches drier than September 2019. Cumulatively speaking, in June through August 2020 the Humboldt weather station saw 5 more inches of rain than normal. Mother nature switched drier in September, with 1.4 inches less rain than normal and 7.7 inches less than in 2019.
Comments
Post a Comment