REGIONAL— The astonishing warmth of the winter of 2023-24 continued this week as reporting stations across the region reported running anywhere from 20-25 degrees above average for the first week of February.
A reporting station located at the end of the Fernberg, 25 miles east of Ely, set an average temperature for the first week of the month at an astonishing 30.9 degrees F, a whopping 26 degrees above normal. That included a high temperature reading for the period of a jaw-dropping 55 degrees during a week that is typically the coldest of winter here in the North Country.
But not this winter. At a time when the average temperature for the week normally hovers a few degrees above or below zero, Tower averaged 29.3 degrees above, or 25.1 degrees above average. The official reporting station three miles east of Orr averaged 30.1 degrees, or 25.9 degrees above average, and most other stations in the northeast reported similar departures from the norm.
While the entire state was mild, Crookston in far northwestern Minnesota set the mark for the greatest departure from normal, with an average temperature of 35.4 degrees for the first week of the month, an astonishing 29 degree departure from average for the week.