By Deb Kroon
Review staff writer
2019 was a year of weird weather throughout the whole country. Areas of the Midwest were hard hit by everything from snow and hurricane strength winds, to downpours of rainfall, all having a major impact on the area.
Eighteen inches of snow were recorded in January, followed by a major storm dropping 2-3 inches of snow and unseasonable rains in early March. As the landscape was still frozen, the rain had nowhere to go and caused major flooding in basements, fields and streams, causing rivers to overflow their banks. Highways and interstate roadways were closed due to flooding.
April came in bringing several major snowstorms. On the weekend of April 6th, a blizzard hit the area dropping up to 7” of snow in SW Minnesota. After barely digging out, another storm moved in on Tuesday. People went to bed on Tuesday night with sleet and rain, and woke up to thunder snow. As Wednesday progressed, the precipitation alternated between snow, sleet and rain, accompanied by strong winds. Over 2,000 power poles went down across Nobles and Murray counties. Crews worked around the clock for over a week before restoring power to all residents affected.
Then Spring came. Approximately 8 inches of rain fell in May onto already saturated fields and rivers, causing more flooding and making it impossible to begin spring planting. As spring progressed into summer, some 224,000 acres remained unplanted. It wasn’t possible to get a string of more than three days without measurable precipitation. June into July, some of the fields dried out, allowing for some planting to be completed, but cover crops would have to be planted. The grain forecast predicted that corn yields would be down about 6.9 bushels per acre, and soybeans would be down 3.1 bushels per acre. The final numbers for 2019 will not be available until after the first of the year.
The rain continued, with July recording about 6 inches, September – 4.72 inches, October – 6.43 inches and November recorded 11.3 inches of snow.
Meanwhile, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) recorded 18 named storms in 2019. Only eight other seasons since 1851 have recorded 18 or more named storms. Such storms have grown increasingly common in recent decades, according to research published in 2018 and 2019 by NOAA hurricane scientist Dr. Jim Kossin. Kossin said, “…the vast majority of the models consistently predict a slowing of the tropical circulation due to human-caused global warming…this is fairly compelling evidence for a human fingerprint on the storms we’re observing.” As these storm continue to slow, more precipitation is allowed to form and fall, effecting all of the country. 2020 could prove to follow the patterns set in motion, as late spring snowstorms are predicted.
