Minnesota's weather in 2017: Warm, but not too warm

Minnesota in 2017 was warm, but not too warm.

Winter ended early yet again, with a nearly historic February warm spell, followed by more warmth in early March, which set the stage for the earliest tornadoes on record in state. The warmth was more impressive for its persistence than for its magnitude.

The Twin Cities had a record-shattering warm streak of 20 months. Even after the string broke, warmer-than-average conditions generally dominated. Minnesota as a state has been warmer than 1981-2010 averages for 32 of the last 40 months.

There were only two 100-degree readings in Minnesota, with a total of just three over the past four summers. By contrast, in the summers of 2011 and 2012, 68 communities produced 109 such readings.

The summer heat of 2017 was tame enough that a heat wave in late September led to the hottest readings of the year in parts of Minnesota.

2016 was a record-wet year, but in 2017 we started to see the state splitting into a wet vs. dry sides. The Northwest spent much of the summer in borderline drought, while the eastern part of the state remained wet for the most part, though not to the levels experienced the year before.

The warmth without excessive heat, and generally adequate precipitation, led to another strong year agriculturally, statewide.