2020 Now The Fifth Driest Year On Record In Duluth

2020 has brought a lot of different things our way. One of them is not rain. Ha!

Throughout the year, the city of Duluth has been very dry, with little rainfall compared to usual. We had hopes that we would catch up on precipitation but midway through September, it looks like we are still well below our average in the area.

The National Weather Service shared this sentiment on Facebook Tuesday (September 15th), writing that from the first of January through the 14th of September, we have only seen about 14 inches of rain. That is about eight inches below our average.

Not only is that a whole lot of rain we are missing, but it also means we are seeing our fifth driest year on record. Yikes! Check out their graphic below:

Wow! We really need precipitation and bad. The good news (in this sense) is that we may make up for what we have lacked so far this year in snowfall later on. According to the National Weather Service, a La Niña winter is very likely this season. This means we can pretty much count on very cold temperatures and above average snowfall.

We have been breaking records left and right in the Duluth area this year. Example? Summer 2020 was the second warmest on record for Duluth. That's right! Only the summer of 2012 was warmer and not by much. Less than half a degree separates the summer of 2012 and the summer of 2020.

We will have to wait and see what the rest of the year holds for us to determine if 2020 remains one of the driest years on record.