As spring sets in, we get the stats on the winter that wasn’t

CATHY WURZER: As you know, this week marked the start of meteorological spring, but it's already felt like spring for quite some time now. We're going to get the final stats on what this winter looked like from MPR's chief meteorologist, Paul Huttner. Hey, welcome back.

PAUL HUTTNER: Hey, good to be here. And I can't help-- you and Emily are just giving me a flashback to the Minnesota DNR Fish Pond at the state fair, right?

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS] That's right.

PAUL HUTTNER: I can see the gar in there just cruising around.

CATHY WURZER: Cruising around with that big snout and people are pointing and--

PAUL HUTTNER: And all the Minnesotans just standing there, loving it.

CATHY WURZER: [LAUGHS] That's one of my favorite places. That's summer. Let's talk about winter, shall we?

PAUL HUTTNER: Yeah, we're just--

CATHY WURZER: It was unique. It was unique.

PAUL HUTTNER: It really was. There's a couple of numbers that jump out as we just kind of coast and glide through the last weeks of what should be wintry weather here on Minnesota. Now, we know it was the warmest winter on record, right? 29.9 degrees. About a degree warmer than the previous record. 10 degrees warmer than normal.

But there are a couple numbers that are just astounding, Cathy. We had 18 days of 50 degrees or warmer this winter. That is double the previous record of eight days. More than double the previous record. We only had six days of subzero weather. That's the fifth least.

And the coldest temperature in the Twin Cities this winter was eight below. Now, that is remarkable because the current average is about 15 below, and the previous average from the 1970s is 23 below. So that's really kind of a signal of how much our winter climate is shifting in Minnesota.

Of course, the snowfall, we're only at 14.3 inches here in the Twin Cities, and that is the second least on record. So just one more look at that winter that was just astounding for us here in Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: So can we just throw up our hands and say, yeah, we're just going to expect more warm weather and maybe some thunderstorms, or we're just-- there's no more snow in the forecast, right? You're not--

PAUL HUTTNER: You know, I was tempted to say that, and then I just took a peek at some of the models again. I still am going to hold out a slight chance of snow later in March. There may be a couple of clippers sliding south. The way the things have been going, they probably won't amount to much. But I'm not going to take a-- you know, I'm not going to say no snow because we can get snow late March, even early April. So we could still get a snowfall or two.

But it does look mild overall for the next week or so. We're 52 in the Twin Cities today. Tomorrow around 50. Back into the 40s Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Sunday, though, a little milder up, to 51. And then we're in the 60s again, Southern Minnesota, Cathy, next Monday and Tuesday. A chance of maybe some rain showers the middle of next week. 40s and 50s up north.

So interesting to note. There may be a couple of clippers later this month. The European model just dropped their summer outlook. Guess what? No surprise. It's favoring warmer than normal temps this summer in Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Shocked, I tell you. Shocked, just given what we've had here. So thanks for mentioning that you're not really ready to give up on snow quite yet. I thank those people who take the snowfall and the rainfall measurements. It's through a program called CoCoRaHS and--

PAUL HUTTNER: It is.

CATHY WURZER: Weather observer volunteers, are they looking for more?

PAUL HUTTNER: They are. And you know, it's interesting because I say this with the warmest of thoughts. You know, I'm a weather geek. I feel like you're a weather geek. We love weather. And we're a state of-- well, let's say weather enthusiasts, right? Minnesota actually leads the nation in volunteer weather observers. It's that CoCoRaHS program which is Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network.

And they've won the CoCoRaHS Cup of Minnesota for the last four years. That means we have the most weather observers in the nation. And it's kind of critical data because it provides resolution for storms and that kind of thing. You get more observers. You get a better read on what's happening.

So they're looking for volunteers again. You need a standard four-inch rain gauge. And they'll give you training, and then you submit your reports online. Cathy, they're especially looking for volunteers in Greater Minnesota so they can kind of fill in that network. There's a lot of gaps.

So I posted about that on Updraft yesterday. If you want to become a CoCoRaHS weather observer, you can find out how to do it there.

CATHY WURZER: And it's very cool, by the way. And I also see one of our favorite people, Pete Boulay, will be with you on Climate Cast?

PAUL HUTTNER: Always a joy to talk with Pete. Yes, we're going to talk about this crazy winter and kind of checking in on our climate in Minnesota. Where is it? And I'll talk with Pete. That's tomorrow on Climate Cast and All Things Considered.

CATHY WURZER: Do you plan on asking him-- because it is kind of interesting-- how climate change affects the way the weather maps are performing?

PAUL HUTTNER: I do. And that's kind of an interesting thing because this winter-- and especially last week when we had these wild swings and extremes in weather. Sioux Falls, South Dakota, set their biggest 36-hour temperature drop on record. So is our climate change making the weather maps swing more violently? That's something Pete and I will talk about. So thank you. That's a great question.

CATHY WURZER: Oh, we're all going to nerd out together listening to Climate Cast. All right. Thank you so much. Talk to you later.

PAUL HUTTNER: Thanks Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: That's MPR's Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner. Of course, you can listen to Climate Cast and get the latest weather updates on our Updraft blog. You can find that at mprnews.org.