March Tornado Reports
According to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center, more than 250 tornado reports were received during the month of March 2022. Keep in mind that these are preliminary reports, so not a final tally, however, this could be the most tornadic March on record across the nation. The current record is 192 set in 2017.
Rain/Snow Sunday. Another Midweek Storm
Weather conditions over the next few days will be quite active with a couple of different storm systems moving through the Midwest. The first of which slides through PM Sunday with areas of rain and snow. The second is a much larger storm system that will bring more rain and snow to the region over a several day time period.
Precipitation Outlook
According to NOAA's WPC, the precipitation outlook through next week shows fairly decent precipitation amounts across the region with near 1" liquid tallies from eastern parts of Minnesota to western and central Wisconsin.
Sunday Night System
The system Sunday night will be responsible for areas of rain and snow across the Upper Midwest. Some locations could see a couple to a few tenths of an inch of liquid. Snowfall amounts should be fairly minimal if any at all.
Average Ice Out Dates
We're still several weeks away from ice out across the state, but according to the MN DNR, here's a look at the average ice out dates for lakes across the state. Note that some lakes across the southern part of the state typically see ice out around the end of March. Lake Minnetonka typically doesn't see ice out until mid April. A few lakes in far northern & northeastern MN don't see ice out until late April or early May.
Status of Spring
"March 28, 2022 - Spring leaf out continues to progress across the country. Our spring leaf anomaly compares the arrival of spring leaf out this year to a long-term average of 1991-2020. After a slow start to spring across much of the Southeast, spring is progressing more rapidly, arriving days to weeks early across the southern part of the Midwest, the Southern Appalachians, and the mid-Atlantic. Boston, MA is two weeks early. In western states, spring leaf out is patchy, arriving a week late in some locations and over a month early in others. Parts of Montana and South Dakota are 2-3 weeks early. Spring bloom has also started to arrive in southern states, days to a week late in Texas and Florida and days to several weeks early in California. Spring bloom is over a week early in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia."