A Look Back on Summer 2011
The summer of 2011 will be remembered as stormy with spells of excessive dew point temperatures. The peak of the mugginess was on July 19 with an 88 degree dew point temperature measured at Moorhead. This is now the new state record dew point temperature, breaking the old record of 86 degrees that was set at Pipestone and St. James on July 23, 2005. The Twin Cities saw 103 hours of dew point temperatures of 75 degrees or higher, the most on record. The counts of hours of 70 degrees or higher was 319 hours in the Twin Cities, above the 30 year average of 182, but not in the top five. The highest air temperature for the summer in the Twin Cities in 2011 was 103 degrees on June 7.
July was quite stormy, with one of the most widespread severe event occurring on July 1. A large cluster of thunderstorms produced wind damage from South Dakota across Minnesota and into northwest Wisconsin. Six tornadoes touched down with this event. June and July featured some heavy rains, including one event on July 16 during the early morning hours that submerged roads on the north side of the Twin Cities and flooded many basements, including flooding around 50 vehicles in the Garden View Apartments in New Brighton. The total precipitation rank for June-August at the Twin Cities International Airport did not even make the top 20 due to the dry August and wound up placing 32nd wettest back to 1891. August was much quieter and less humid. Average temperatures across the state for Meteorological Summer will finish one to three degrees above normal, with a few exceptions such as International Falls finished just below normal for the summer.
June-August Average Temperatures for the Twin Cities International Airport 1891-2011 Rank Value Year 1 75.5 1988 2 75.2 1933 3 74.2 1894 74.2 1936 (tie) 5 74.3 1949 74.3 2006 (tie) 7 74.2 2010 8 74.1 1921 74.1 1937 (tie) 74.1 1955 (tie) 11 74.0 1983 74.0 2011 (tie)