Driest February in Rochester in 16 Years

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Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News) - There wasn’t much snow and it was significantly colder than normal in the Rochester area last month, but last February was much colder.

National Weather Service says the average temperature last month was 13.9 degrees, which is nearly 5 degrees below normal. It was frigid, but it did not come close to making the top 10 list of the coldest Februarys on record in Rochester. By comparison, the average temperature during February last year was only 8.3 degrees which is tied for sixth on the list of the 10 coldest Februarys compiled by the National Weather Service.

The coldest reading last month was 11-degrees below zero on February 5 and the mercury bottomed out below zero on 10 of the 28 days. The warmest temperature of the month was recorded on February 20 when it reached 47 degrees at the Rochester Airport.

February 2022 was bone dry. The overall precipitation total was just over 4-tenths of an inch, which makes it the driest month of February in Rochester since 2006. The snowfall total last month was only 6.4 inches. That is 4.3 inches below normal and was the lowest February snowfall total since 2002. The largest snowfall of the month came on February 22 when Rochester saw 2.6 inches of accumulation.