Minnesota Weather Summary for the 1830’s

Warm and Dry First Half, Colder and Wetter Second.

Similar to the 1820’s, the 1830’s displayed a sort of dichotomy of year-to-year weather regimes: mostly warm and dry over the first half followed by cooler and wetter over the second.

Four of the first five years of the new decade (1830, 1832, 1833, and 1834) were warmer than any of the 1820’s, except for 1825. Much of the relative warmth was experienced in Spring (March-May) and Fall (September-November), though other seasons occasionally displayed unseasonable warmth as well. Fall 1830 was the mildest of the entire pre-Statehood historical era, and July of that year was the hottest calendar month until infamous July 1936. The ’32-’33 winter was also the mildest locally for another 45 years. Except for 1839, the decade’s second half was considerably colder and occasionally more precipitation frequent (quantitative measurements of precipitation commenced in July 1836). Combined mean temperature for the years 1835-38 was 3 F lower than that for 1830-34, some notably cool Spring and Fall months experienced during the first group. A great warming, however, took place in 1839, annual mean temperature (48 F), the highest thus far in the record-keeping experience.

Precipitation frequencies for the growing seasons (May to August) of 1830-1833 were mostly low, sharply higher tallies shown, however, for 1834 and 1835. In July 1836 the Post’s first rain gauge was installed, more than 7 inches measured for the month. Growing season amounts for 1837, 1838, and 1839 were roughly 2/3rds, 1 1/2 times, and 2/3rds of the modern-day average, respectively. Decadal snowfall, judging from occurrence frequencies, appeared to be light for the 1829-30 thru 1834-35 seasons; the 1835-6 winter, however, was perhaps the snowiest or second snowiest to date. Mostly light snows were experienced over the 1836-7 thru 1838-9 seasons.