Record November warmth was state's No. 1 weather event of 2020

It's hard to beat days with temperatures in the 70s and 80s with abundant sunshine and little to no wind, no matter what time of the year.

But when it feels like summer in November, many Minnesotans relish it.

The warmest six-day period in any November on record throughout the state was voted the No. 1 weather event of 2020 by weather enthusiasts who took part in a contest put on by the Minnesota State Climatology Office to come up with the top five weather events of the year.

An Oct. 20 snowstorm that dropped 6 to 9 inches of snow across much of central and southern Minnesota — 7.9 inches piled up in the Twin Cities — came in at No. 2 according to contest participants, including the folks from the National Weather Service, the University of Minnesota, several state agencies and fans who follow the climatology office on Facebook.

A July tornado in Otter Tail County that killed a 30-year-old man and spawned Minnesota's first EF4 twister in nearly a decade grabbed the third spot, followed by the state's first known encounter with a tropical depression and the Easter Sunday snowstorm that deposited 6.6 inches of snow in the Twin Cities and 10 inches elsewhere.

Submissions had closed before a blizzard dubbed the "Holiday Lights Howler" struck Dec. 23. The storm, which prompted the National Weather Service to cover 70 of Minnesota's 87 counties with blizzard warnings, received an honorable mention.

The late fall was the most memorable in quite some time. A very winterlike October that saw the heaviest snow on record for so early in the season gave way to historic warmth when the calendar flipped to November.

For six days from Nov. 3 to 9, the mercury rose above 70 degrees, shattering records across the state. It was "one of Minnesota's greatest warmups," the climatology office said.

Temperatures hovered just above zero in Lamberton and Brimson, Minn., on Oct. 27. A week later, most of the state was basking in historic warmth, which included an 84-degree reading in Granite Falls on Nov. 4. That tied Minnesota's record high for the month set Nov. 1, 1950, in Winona, according to the climatology office.

The Twin Cities set four daily record-high temperatures in November and had five days when the mercury surpassed 70 degrees, the climatology office said.

Nothing about this week's weather is likely to make the list of 2021 memorable weather events. The forecast calls for mild conditions with highs a few degrees on either side of 30 through next Tuesday, with a mix of sun and clouds. No significant precipitation is expected, the National Weather Service said.

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768