Today’s Almanac (12/07/24)

It’s almost hard to believe how warm it was today across southeastern Minnesota and northern Iowa! High temperatures climbed well into the 50F’s for everyone from Rochester to Mason City!

The observed high temperature in Rochester was 54F, while the average high temperature for December 7th is 31F. Today’s high was 23F above the long term average!

We did not quite reach the record high for this day, however. That title still belongs to December 7th of 1939, when the afternoon high temperature reached 56F. Austin and Mason City reached a high of 57F, however, although their records are slightly different.

The low this morning was 24F, which is far closer to average, yet still above the bar of 17F. Imagine if we had the record low this morning of -28F like we did in 1972…no thanks!

It is even more astonishing to think about how warm temperatures got today when thinking about how cold it was just two short days ago! The morning low for Friday was 12F. The morning low for Thursday was 4F! From Thursday to today, we have risen 50F!

Temperatures today alone rose 30F from the morning low to the afternoon high temperature. When comparing today’s high to yesterday’s high, we came in 21 degrees warmer!

From a personal standpoint, you almost didn’t need a jacket today, especially since we have been accustomed to seeing single digit temperatures as of the last week or so. Talk about a “heat wave”!