September was the sunniest on record in Twin Cities and Minnesota

Not only was September the warmest and driest on record in the Twin Cities, last month turned out to be the least cloudy September on record and one of the clearest months of all time.

Brian Brettschneider, a climatologist in Alaska, over the weekend released a graphic ranking the United States from cloudiest to the least cloudiest, and found that in September the sun shined in Minnesota and much of Wisconsin more than any place in the country.

“For Minnesota, not only was it a record for least cloudy September, it was a record for least cloudy month overall,” he posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Brettschneider used data from 1950 to the present in his analysis.

The Twin Cities saw 18 days last month with clear skies and another 11 with partly cloudy conditions — meaning more sun than clouds — and just one day with cloudy skies, according to the Minnesota Climatology Office.

On the other end of the scale, Florida, known as the “Sunshine State,” and pockets in the Pacific Northwest saw the most clouds last month, Brettschneider found.

With abundant sunshine, temperatures in Minnesota were warmer than normal in September. In the Twin Cities, the mercury hit or surpassed 80 degrees 19 times during the month, the Minnesota Climatology Office said. That helped push the average monthly temperature to 70.4 degrees, making it the warmest September since 1873 when weather record-keeping began.

An absence of clouds also led to a lack of rain. Just 0.06 inches of rain fell during the month, which made it the driest September on record, the Climatology Office said.

No umbrellas will be needed this week, but you will need sunglasses as more warm and dry weather is on the way. High temperatures will range from the low 70s Monday and Tuesday, the mid 70s on Wednesdays and low 80s by Thursday, the National Weather Service said.

Cooler weather — upper 60s Saturday and low 60s Sunday —and a few clouds arrive for the weekend, the Weather Service said. As for rain, not a drop is predicted according to the Weather Service’s weekly forecast.