Ninety Years of Weather Reporting in Northwest Minnesota

Abstract

Weather--one of the most dynamic forces of nature--touches the life of every individual; it affects water supplies, food, shelter, and sometimes destroys life itself. Because of weather's great importance, weather records have been kept at the Northwest Experiment Station for over 65 years. This is the second publication describing weather at Crookston. Dr. Olaf Saine compiled the first publication in 1966 entitled "Fifty Years of Weather at the Northwest Experiment Station." Weather records for the years 1890-1915 from an observation point within the city of Crookston were used to complete the 90-year summary. The purpose of this bulletin is to disseminate climatological data in an organized form to a variety of individuals and groups. Various determinations have been calculated with the aid of the computer programs developed by the University of Minnesota, St. Paul Campus Computer Center. The 90 years of weather data also had to be entered into files for the computer to summarize and manipulate. This time-consuming task was completed by Dr. Donald Baker of the climatology section of the Soil Science Dept., University of Minnesota. The resulting individual data, means and extremes were then organized by the author to publish this report. Hopefully, this publication will be a useful reference to the local newspapers, radio stations, farmers, power and fuel companies, agribusinesses and other interested individuals and groups.