Record warmth and February rain Thursday

Another February day, another batch of high-temperature records smashed.

The temperature hit 53 degrees at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport Thursday afternoon. That breaks the previous record high of 50 degrees, set last in 2002, by 3 degrees. Eau Claire, Wis., busted the previous record high temperature by a whopping 10 degrees.

The record warmth is part of our latest surge of unreal warm air from the southern United States. Temperatures reached well into the 50s in southeastern Minnesota with 60s as close as Iowa and Wisconsin.

In southeastern Iowa, the temperature hit 70 degrees Thursday in Muscatine. On Feb. 8.

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Temperatures Thursday afternoon.
Oklahoma Mesonet

Here are some high temperatures from around our region on Thursday:

Winona, 59 degrees
Eau Claire, Wis., 59 degrees
Red Wing, 55 degrees
Twin Cities, 53 degrees

Broken winter of 2023-24

To say this is a warm winter is a gross understatement. This is the warmest winter on record so far across most of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest.

Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index.
Midwest Regional Climate Center

Including Wednesday and Thursday, we’ve had 12 days this winter at or above 50 degrees in the Twin Cities. That’s a record for the most 50-degree days. And it’s only Feb. 8.

Here’s more on our record-warm winter from the Minnesota State Climatology Office.

The winter season can be defined meteorologically (December through February), astronomically (December 21 to March 21), or based on when we actually experience winter-like conditions, meaning cold and snow. By that latter definition, a typical winter lasts from November into March or even April, but this year, we've had only a total of about two weeks of it, and some of that was around Halloween!
Instead, the winter has been dominated by warmth and snowlessness. Winter heatwaves in December, January, and February have produced record high temperatures, record high minimum temperatures, and some "firsts" for winter warmth too. International Falls recorded its first January 50 F temperature in its history, and the Twin Cities broke its record for number of 50 F days for the season by early February.
Most areas in the state had received less than 25% of their normal snowfall through the first week of February, and had seen 20-55 days since December 1st with no snow on the ground.
The following table summarizes temperature statistics for the December through February meteorological winter.