The Winter of 2023/2024 was one that fits best “outside the norm” with such little snow that fell across the area and unseasonably warm temperatures that made this past winter not so winter. Such little snow was nice for some but also worried others, especially agriculture. Winter snowpack is a factor that plays into subsoil moisture as the snowpack melts off in spring. Of course, some of it runs off into the rivers but a portion soaks into the ground. Snowpack or season snowfall averages 51 inches in Fargo and 48 inches in Grand Forks ND based on the last 30 year average. Outside of the major rain and ice storm that struck over the Christmas time, its been very dry with only 17.5 inches of snow in Fargo and 19.7 inches in Grand Forks. However, the Christmas Storm did bring in liquid moisture vs snow with nearly 3 inches of rain in Fargo and more than three quarters of an inch in Grand Forks.
Decent rains also fell into Minnesota, this moisture did help catch a few areas up to normal moisture for the winter season, but much of the surrounding area remained well below average for the season.
Usually snowpack will replenish subsoil moisture for foliage and plants to tap into for spring. But with limited snow to melt soil moisture contents were looking to start where they left off from the past fall… dry. Thankfully April into early May brought much needed rains across most of the area.
For many locations this was an above average amount of rain for the period.
But does a wet April and early May fix a dry winter?
In terms of those who saw the heaviest rains, it does fix a dry winter, at least in terms of how much moisture fell and has been able to work its way into the subsoil compared to “average”. In some areas, the April rain wasn’t enough but it did help put some moisture back into the ground when it is needed the most.
Meteorologist,
Justin Storm
