Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/23/2021

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This section summarizes the land and water resources located within the LRRWMO. It contains information on climate and precipitation, topography and drainage, land use, soils, geology, groundwater, surface waters, natural areas, habitat, and rare species, recreation, and potential pollutant sources. Land and water resource information is important because it describes the condition of the watershed and how those conditions impact decisions about infrastructure, development, and resource management. The climate of the seven county Twin Cities Metropolitan Area is a humid continental climate, characterized by moderate precipitation (normally sufficient for crops), wide daily temperature variations, large seasonal variations in temperature, warm humid summers, and cold winters with moderate snowfall. Climate data is often presented according to 30-year "climate normal" periods, the most recent spanning the period from 1981-2010. Several of the wettest years on record have been observed since 2010. Deviation from climate normal and data since 2010 are discussed in Section 2.1.2. Climate data presented in this section is based on the 10-year period from 2010 through 2019, unless otherwise noted. The mean annual temperature in the LRRWMO is 43.6°F, as measured at Andover 1 N station (2010-2019). Mean monthly temperatures vary from 12.4°F in January to 71.9°F in July (2010-2019). For the 1981-2010 climate normal period, the average frost -free period (growing season) is approximately 157 days. Table 2-1 summarizes monthly precipitation data near the City of Anoka based on the Minnesota Climatology Working Group gridded precipitation dataset for the most recent complete climate normal period (1981-2010) and 10 year period (2010-2019). Average total annual precipitation is 34.3 inches (2010-2019). The mean monthly precipitation varies from 4.4 inches in July to 0.7 inches in February (2010-2019). From May to September, the growing season months, the average rainfall (2010-2019) is 22.0 inches, or about 65% of the average annual precipitation. Snowfall averaged 59.4 inches annually at the Cedar, MN station during the 1981-2010 climate normal period. Additional information about local and regional climate is available from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) State Climatology office and NOAA at: • Minnesota State Climatology Office: tt+ s:// ®• nr.st t . s/cli t /' •. }x. t • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center (NCDC): tt,s:// . cc. • ®+ v/c+® / 2-1