Climate of Minneapolis–Saint Paul

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The climate of Minneapolis–Saint Paul is the long term weather trends and historical events of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in east central Minnesota. Minneapolis and St. Paul, together known as the Twin Cities, are the core of the 15th largest metropolitan area in the United States. With a population of 3.6 million people, the region contains approximately 60% of the population of Minnesota. Due to its location in the northern and central portion of the U. S., the Twin Cities has the coldest average temperature of any major metropolitan area in the nation. Winters are very cold, summer is warm and humid, snowfall is common in the winter and thunderstorms with heavy rainfall occur during the spring, summer and autumn. Though winter can be cold, the area receives more sunlight hours in mid winter than many other warmer parts of the country, including all of the Great Lakes states, the Pacific Northwest, parts of the South, and almost all of the Northeast. Unless otherwise indicated, all normals data presented below are based on data at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, the official Twin Cities climatology station, from the 1981−2010 normals period.

The climate of the Twin Cities is classified as hot summer humid continental without dry season (Köppen Dfa). A feature of the humid continental climate in the United States is that weather can be unpredictable with extremes occurring in many phases of measurements. For example, the Twin Cities has a hotter all time record high temperature of than the entire state of Florida, despite being located nearly 1000 miles farther from the equator. Conversely, temperatures during the winter months are colder in the Twin Cities than in any other major metropolitan area in the continental United States, and are about equal to those in Anchorage, Alaska, which is around 1000 mile (1609 km) closer to the North Pole. The Twin Cities can also experience droughts, floods, and on average are windier than Chicago, Illinois (the "Windy City", although that is not the origin of the phrase).

Because of its location in the center of North America, the Twin Cities region is subjected to some of the widest temperature ranges in the United States. Temperatures in the Twin Cities region range from an average of in January to in July. During summer months, Minneapolis can be subject to hot temperatures from May to September, and high humidity.

With temperature records dating to 1 October 1872, the range in temperatures has officially ranged from on January 21, 1888, up to on July 14, 1936, during the Dust Bowl years. and Mankato (44.7) which are both located farther to the south.

The Twin Cities experiences a wide range of precipitation types. Rain is the most common form during the summer months, while snow, hail, sleet, freezing rain, and occasionally rain occur during the winter. The summer months of June, July and August account for nearly half of the annual precipitation total across the Twin Cities. Most of this rain falls from thunderstorms, a frequent summer occurrence. Even though summer is the primary season for the Twin Cities to experience thunderstorms, they can occur from March to November. On rare occasions thundersnow can occur, where thunder and lightning accompanies winter or (more usually) spring snowstorms. During spring and summer, some thunderstorms are severe. These storms produce damaging straight line winds, large hail and, occasionally, a tornado. The Twin Cities has experienced several major derecho events, most recently during the Late May 1998 Tornado Outbreak and Derecho which traveled from South Dakota to New York on May 30 – May 31, 1998. Summertime thunderstorms are fueled by dew points that often reach into the 70s °F (21 °C) and sometimes even
Winter precipitation comes in a few different forms. Snow is the main form of precipitation, but freezing rain, hail, sleet and sometimes even rain are all possible during the winter months. Larger storm systems, often Panhandle hooks or other storms that occur with a meridional flow, can bring large amounts of snow and even blizzard conditions. The average annual snowfall in the Twin Cities is , with an average of 100 days per year with at least of snow cover. The most snow the Twin Cities has officially seen during one winter was in 1983–1984 with , and the least was in 1930–1931 with .

On November 11, 1940, the Armistice Day Blizzard affected all of southeast Minnesota, killing 60 people in Minnesota. The Twin Cities recorded 17 inches of snow, and temperatures dropped nearly sixty degrees over the course of one day. The largest snowstorm to affect most of the Twin Cities area was the Halloween Blizzard on October 31 – November 2, 1991. Officially, of snow was reported at the Twin Cities airport. The heaviest snow fell in a line from there, northward to Duluth. Lesser amounts fell to the east and west of that line, but it was the largest early season snowstorm for the entire region.

The largest flash flood in Twin Cities history occurred on July 23–July 24, 1987. Dubbed locally The Super Storm, more rain fell from this event than any other in recorded Twin Cities history. The storm caused damage to 9,000 homes, killed two people, and caused $27 million in damage. Some areas in the southern metro area recorded of rain. The that fell on July 23 is the largest official single day rainfall for the Twin Cities. Overall, at least of rain fell over 93 square miles (241 km2), and at least fell over 1460 square miles (3,781 km2). This event was voted the eighth most significant weather event in the state of Minnesota during the 20th century. Three days before this event on July 20–July 21, up to of rain fell over some of these same areas. These two storms combined to help the Twin Cities to their wettest summer on record, with of rain falling from June to August. The Minnesota River and Mississippi River both flow through the Twin Cities, and in turn there is some degree of river flooding almost annually. The worst floods in Twin Cities history on these rivers were in 1965. Other substantial floods occurred in 1969, 1993, 1997 and 2001.