Driest Autumn

     We  know that it has been extremely dry the past few months. What some people may not know is that this has been an historic dry spell. In the Twin Cities, we have never seen a drier meteorological autumn.   What the heck is a "meteorological autumn"?  Well, if you want 4 seasons of equal length, you take the three warmest months (June, July, August), and call them summer. You take the 3 coolest months (December, January, February), and call them winter. The gaps in between are called spring and autumn.
   This autumn, we've seen only 1.36 inches of precipitation (rainfall plus the water contained in snowfall) at MSP airport, which is the official spot for Twin Cities weather records. Our autumn precip total was an amazing 5.92 inches below normal!  As mentioned earlier, we've never seen a drier autumn in the Twin Cities...based on weather records that go back to 1871. You can get a list of the ten driest autumns, provided by the Minnesota Climatology Working Group, at the MN State Climatology website:  http://climate.umn.edu/doc/journal/dry_fall_msp_2011.htm