Top Five Weather Events for 2024 in Minnesota

Here are the results of voting for the top five weather events of 2024 from the Minnesota State Climatology Office. Votes were cast from various weather enthusiasts including the National Weather Service, the University of Minnesota, State agencies and Facebook followers. Please visit us on Facebook and post your own top five weather events for Minnesota.

#5 (Tie) Extreme Autumn Warmth and Dryness.

The warmth of September came with an almost total lack of precipitation lasting through much of October. A period of exceptional dryness and warmth blanketed Minnesota for over 50 days, from the first day of September into the fourth week of October 2024. The warm and dry conditions caused a rapid and widespread expansion of drought in the state, with some areas dropping three categories on the US Drought Monitor in just 8 weeks--going from no drought to having "severe" drought.

#5 (Tie) The Dueling Dry Spells of 2024.

The dryness and drought of early autumn included one long period without any measurable precipitation. In the Twin Cities, where precipitation records go back to 1871, the 34-days without measurable precipitation is tied for the second-longest such dry spell on record. Perhaps most amazingly, the dry spell it ties for #2 had occurred from February into March, earlier this year! Two high-ranking dry spells in the same year is a rare, and no other years are featured twice in the top-ten.

#4 Record-shattering January Thaw that lasted 24 days at the Twin Cities (and into mid-February)!

This particular thaw began on January 22nd in the Twin Cities and lasted through February 14th, making it 24 days, which beat the former record of 21 days from December 19, 2006 through January 8, 2007. The thaw included a powerful January heat wave, featuring one of the warmest January days on record. St. Cloud also observed its longest January Thaw on record, spanning 17 days from January 24 through February 9, 2024. 

#3 Enormous Hail, July 31.

It was not a particularly busy severe thunderstorm season in Minnesota, but one event made a run for the record books, when storms out in western Minnesota produced some of the largest hailstones on record for the state. It’s impossible to know exactly where this one ranks, but the hail reported in this event is the largest stone for which we have evidence submitted with the report.

#2 Massively wet June 2024.

June finished as the fourth wettest on record statewide, but some long-term stations had their wettest month of all-time and Faribault even cracked Minnesota’s top-ten list of wettest station-months on record.

#1 Exceptionally wet period from June 15-22.

The late-March winter storm initiated a much wetter period in Minnesota, leading to above-average precipitation in April, and May, but it was an extraordinary period in mid-June that produced significant flash floods in northeastern, and then southwestern through south-central Minnesota, kicking off an period of record to near-record stream and river flooding along the Minnesota and Mississippi river systems. This event made National News with spectacular imagery showing the partial failure of the Rapidan Dam in Blue Earth County.

Updated Dec 31, 2024

PJB/KAB